Search
Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 5:21
We have previously covered two points. First, God saves us according to His own righteousness. We are not saved by our own righteousness; we are saved by God's righteousness. God did not save us according to our righteousness, but according to His own righteousness. Thank the Lord that God cannot be unrighteous toward us, because He cannot betray Himself. When we believe in Him, He has to save us, and we have to be saved. Second, Christ is our righteousness. We come to God by putting on Christ. Our righteousness before God is not our conduct. Our righteousness before God is Christ. There is a difference between our conduct and our righteousness before God; we cannot mix up the two things. We cannot make our conduct our righteousness before God, or our righteousness before God our conduct. God's Word shows us that it is possible for our conduct to fluctuate, but it is impossible for our righteousness before God to fluctuate, because our righteousness is Christ. Thank the Lord. When God opens our eyes to see that our righteousness before God is Christ and not our conduct, we are liberated, we can pray and fellowship with God, and we can be bold before God.
Now we come to the third point, which is covered in 2 Corinthians 5:21: "Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." We were sinful. But through Christ being made sin on our behalf, we were saved. Those who have received salvation through the work of Christ are the righteousness of God in Christ. This matches the word in 1 Corinthians 1:30. First Corinthians 1:30 shows us that "Christ Jesus...became...to us...righteousness," while 2 Corinthians 5:21 shows us that "we...become the righteousness of God." The One who knew no sin was made sin on our behalf, and those who confess this One become the righteousness of God.
I do not know how to put this, but it is a most wonderful thing that we are the righteousness of God. The Bible tells us that our righteousness is Christ, that God's righteousness is us. God has made Christ our righteousness, and He has made us the righteousness of God in Christ. What is the meaning of the expression "we become the righteousness of God"? This means that if anyone wants to know what God's righteousness is, and if anyone wants to see God's righteousness, all he has to do is find a Christian. God's righteousness is displayed in Christians. Hence, Christians are the righteousness of God.
Before we believed in the Lord, we were not clear what righteousness is and what unrighteousness is according to God's standard. Even after we become a Christian, we are still not necessarily clear about righteousness and unrighteousness. God not only has to save us; He has to teach us the lesson of righteousness. God's redemption saves unrighteous ones, and His redemption teaches us the meaning of righteousness.
In the first chapter, we saw that God cannot forgive our sins easily. When we sin, we break the law, and God is a God who honors the law. God loves us, yet He cannot disregard the law. He wants to forgive us, yet He cannot break the law. Therefore, He paid the price that we should have paid ourselves. This is the meaning of redemption. In order to forgive our sins, God sent His Son to bear our punishment. Since Christ has borne our sins, we can now come to God through Christ. God cannot reject anyone who comes to Him through Christ, because Christ's cross has satisfied God's righteous requirement.
Some may think that if God wants to save us, He can simply do it, and there is no need to send the Son or to crucify Him on the cross to shed His blood for us. They think there is no need for God to go to such lengths, but they have never thought of the matter of righteousness. We have to realize that God wants very much to save us, yet He cannot be unrighteous. In His heart, He wants to save us, but He must be righteous. What would happen if He allowed us to be saved easily, and what if He took away Hades, death, and the lake of fire? The consequence is very serious! If God took away Hades, He would take away His righteousness; if He took away death, He would take away His righteousness; and if He took away the lake of fire, He would also take away His righteousness. God is responsible to Himself for His righteousness. Although He does not have to be responsible to anyone, He cannot be careless with Himself; He has to be responsible to Himself. God must be righteous towards Himself.
When a Christian comes to God through Christ, others see him as the righteousness of God. This means that God has not forgiven men carelessly or without any ground. He forgives men righteously. He has given us His Son for the satisfaction of the demand of His law. When we stand before God and present Christ to Him, we become the righteousness of God. To say that we are the righteousness of God has nothing to do with our Christian conduct; it has to do with being the manifestation of God's righteousness through the redemption of Christ.
We had our entrance through the way of righteousness; this is the way we were saved. The result of this is that as Christians, we should learn righteousness. We cannot be careless in anything. Since God has been righteous in saving us, we do not match God and are not compatible with Him if we are not righteous. Redemption makes us an expression of God's righteousness. What redemption has taught us should be expressed as God's righteousness in our lives. We should live our life on earth as righteous ones. We have to remember that God could not be unrighteous in saving us; He could not be unrighteous toward Himself. His nature is such that He has to be righteous. He cannot perform an unrighteous act or let an unrighteous act go unpunished. Since every saved person, every Christian, is a specimen and an expression of God's righteousness, how can we do anything unrighteous? If the unique supreme God has to be righteous, how much more should we spend our days on earth in righteousness? We can learn one lesson immediately: anything unrighteous does not resemble God, any violation of others' rights does not resemble God, and any neglect of our own duty does not resemble God. We must remember that for the sake of righteousness, God paid a righteous price, the price of His Son. God has sacrificed His Son for the sake of righteousness. Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified One, is God's righteous price. For the sake of righteousness, God paid a great price. Now what should we do? We cannot be unrighteous for fear of paying a price. For a while, it may be convenient and advantageous to compromise. But if we are an unrighteous person, we will eat the fruit of unrighteousness in the end.
Brothers and sisters, in order to advance in this way, we must first consider how we initially entered this way. In saving us, God did not bring us in through the back door; He welcomed us through the front door. Thank and praise God that we were saved in a respectable way. In bringing us in in this way, God shut up every mouth; He saved us in a righteous way. If God were unrighteous in any way, the devil would have something to say, because he is forever standing on God's opposite side. The devil would say that God saved men unrighteously. We thank the Lord that He prepared a salvation that even shuts the mouth of the devil. God saved us in a way that no one can overturn. First John 1:9 says, "He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." God saved us according to His righteousness. Hallelujah, this is the way we came in! Since God was not loose and unrighteous in saving us, we should not be loose in anything that we do throughout our life.
We have to learn the principle of righteousness. What does it mean to be righteous? Being righteous is owing others nothing; it is refusing to take what one does not deserve, and refusing to give what should not be given. To repeat, since God is not unrighteous concerning Himself, we who belong to Him cannot be unrighteous either. We cannot owe anyone anything. Whether or not we can be a proper Christian and grow depends on our view and feeling concerning righteousness at the time we entered the gate. It hurts our heart to see some so-called Christians having no sense of righteousness at all. They never feel that they have done anything unrighteous. Some have not even apologized once to anyone since they became a Christian. Does this mean that they have always been right? There can only be two possibilities as to why they have never apologized. Either they have been right all the time and never been wrong, or they have been wrong and not confessed that they were wrong. May the Lord be merciful to us so that we do not deceive ourselves to think that we are never wrong. May we not put aside confession through the hardening of our heart or the saving of our face.
In order to learn righteousness, we have to learn to deal with all the unrighteous things. Before we became a Christian, we might have done many unrighteous things, such as taking advantage of others, deceiving others, or unconsciously taking their possessions as our own. All these are unrighteousnesses. Some might even have done worse. Some have been unrighteous not only in material things, but with respect to the rights of others. Everyone has his own right. If you do not respect the rights of others, you are being unrighteous. Some parents argue with each other all the time. There is no peace between them all year round, and their children are deprived of the peace they deserve. As a result, the parents have trampled the rights of their children under their feet. This is being unrighteous. Some husbands have not fulfilled their duty as husbands. Some wives have not fulfilled their duty as wives. These are also unrighteousnesses. Now that we have become Christians, we should learn to deal with these unrighteous things.
How well we run the race before us depends on how well we have learned the first lesson. God's redemption tells us that God has saved us in such a righteous way that we can no longer live carelessly on earth; we have to be righteous. At least we should learn this one lesson. Once we know of any unrighteousness, we have to deal with it because all unrighteousnesses are sins. Many people only know pride, jealousy, murder, and arson as sins. They have not seen what unrighteousness is. God has to bring us to the point where we see unrighteouseness item by item. When we find any unrighteousness, we have to deal with it. If we do not deal with our unrighteousness, we cannot express God. When others see us, they will not see God's righteousness and not know what God's righteousness is all about. We must let others see God's righteousness in our daily lives. In the following paragraphs we will consider how to deal with unrighteousness.
The thing that touches us the most is money. Hence, we must first learn righteousness in the way we deal with money. We cannot spend other people's money, much less can we steal money from others. We cannot turn other people's money into our own by improper means. Turning what is not ours into something that is ours through any improper means or in any subconscious way is unrighteousness. If there are such things, we have to deal with them. We cannot borrow something from others and never return it to them. At the beginning of our Christian life, we should do our best to clear up any financial entanglements with others; we must not be loose in this matter. If God has shown you that you owe others anything, that you have stolen from others, or that you have extorted from others, you have to deal with it. You have to deal with any evasion or omission in tax that is due the government. You must deal with the matter of money very seriously. You have to deal with everything in the past that the Lord puts His finger on, and you have to do your best to preserve yourself in this matter in the future. If you are loose in this matter, you will be loose in every matter. One cannot be loose or foolish about money. If you cannot financially afford to repay everything all at once, you must first confess to others what you owe, and then do your best to make restitution later. Repay if you can, but if you cannot repay now, confess first and then repay later.
Other than money, we have to deal with other material things that we owe to others. We should not have the habit of coveting others' possessions, and we should never borrow something from others without returning it to them promptly. Many times we have the bad habit of being careful with our own things and careless with the things of others. This is unrighteousness. We have to learn to be conscientious with others' possessions. We still have some borrowed items that should be returned to the owner. Some borrowed items have been lost; we should purchase similar items and return them to the owner or pay back the equivalent. We should not borrow some items from others anymore. Many people have failed in these material things, and we must be extremely careful. In all these matters we have to express God's righteousness. We cannot be loose or careless in handling material things.
We need to deal thoroughly with material things, and we also need to deal with the greed within us. Covetousness is a very bad habit as well as an inclination. We have to learn to benefit others, to care for others. We should not hope to gain from or take advantage of others. We must learn not to profit at the expense of others. Doing so is unrighteous.
Consider the example of rickshaw fares. Some of my friends realize that there are certain days that are slow days for the rickshaw drivers. The routes that they want to take are often unfamiliar to the rickshaw drivers. As a result, they bargain for a lower fare. But if we care for righteousness, should we try to take advantage of these circumstances? Outwardly speaking, it is not wrong for us to pay as we have agreed to be charged. But according to the Christian standard, we should pay the rickshaw driver a little more than what is required. Not only is robbing others unrighteous; greediness and taking advantage of others are also unrighteous. Even when others approve of what we do, we are often still unrighteous. Others may approve of us and agree to take up the loss because they have no choice, but a Christian should not do anything like this. In our business transactions, we should not calculate how much we can take advantage of others, but how much is a fair price. Righteousness will bring us to the point that we satisfy our Christian conscience within. It is not what others say, but whether our inner being agrees or disagrees.
Not only can we be unrighteous in material things, but we can be unrighteous with respect to the rights of others. For example, there are set times for work and rest in public places. When it is time to rest, others have the right to rest. If we shout and yell while others are resting, we are disturbing their rest and are being unrighteous. Another example of infringing upon the rights of others is browsing over their documents. This is also unrighteousness. When we travel, we have to follow the proper order in boarding and unboarding buses. If we are at the end of a line and try to cut into the line, we are infringing upon the rights of others. This is unrighteousness. We should be sensitive concerning things of this nature, and we must deal with them; otherwise, we are not being righteous.
There are many other things of a similar nature, and we cannot enumerate them all. If we are willing to be enlightened by the Lord, He will show us many unrighteous things. Once we see that we are wrong, we should not be afraid of confessing our wrong. When we first become a Christian, it is inevitable that we will make mistakes. The worst thing is being ignorant of our mistakes or refusing to admit our mistakes once we know them. Being ignorant of our mistakes is being in darkness. Sins can be forgiven, but darkness cannot be forgiven. If we confess our sins, the Lord will forgive us. But darkness makes us ignorant of our sins; therefore, we cannot enjoy forgiveness. The Lord said, "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness" (John 8:12). If we do not have the light, we will not be able to tell the difference between black and white. If we are in the light, we will see what unrighteousness is and what sin is.
For a new believer, nothing is more important than knowing what unrighteousness is. For a Christian, as he grows, the most important thing is becoming more and more sensitive to unrighteousness and dealing with all unrighteousness more and more seriously.
A brother once said, "When I was first saved, I wrote a hundred letters of apology and confession the first year and another hundred the second year. In spite of that, I only knew sin but did not know unrighteousness. I knew that I had cheated, slandered, and supplanted others. These were sins, and I dealt with them. But I did not see what unrighteousness is; I did not know what it means to infringe upon the rights of others. I did not realize that I should give others what is rightfully theirs and that I should not give others what they do not deserve. Three years after I was saved, I read a story from a magazine which was about a conference that was held in a certain place. On the day of the conference, it was raining. Someone was sitting on the first row, and he put his raincoat on the back of the chair beside him. Another man was walking up to the platform to deliver his message, and he inadvertently displaced the raincoat on the front row. One sleeve of the raincoat fell to the floor, and he accidentally stepped on it with his muddy shoes. He knew what he had done, but he just kicked the sleeve aside. He delivered a very good message and others could see that he was very familiar with the Scripture. But the writer of the story remarked, `I do not care how good his message is. I just want to see what he will do to the sleeve when he comes down from the platform.' After the speaker finished his message, he kicked the sleeve aside just as he had done before and sat down. The writer of the story concluded with the words, `This is unrighteousness.' I never knew what unrighteousness was until the day I read this story. The word unrighteousness suddenly became very big to me. What is unrighteousness? Unrighteousness is trespassing on others. The man should not have stepped on the sleeve and then sat down. Even if he did not clean the sleeve, at least he should have apologized to the owner of the raincoat. For him to do such a thing was unrighteous." Brothers and sisters, we have to learn to know what unrighteousness is. Being unrighteous is crossing the boundary, trespassing against others, and causing others to suffer. God has made us His righteousness, and He has made us an expression of His righteousness to the extent that when others see us they see God's righteousness; therefore, we cannot be unrighteous in our daily living.
Finally, I should add a few words. In regard to ourselves, we have to be righteous. But when we see others being unrighteous, we have to pray for them. The hardest thing for us to take is seeing others practicing unrighteousness while we are practicing righteousness. We may feel indignant and angry. We may want to cut them off and ignore them, but this is useless. We have to realize that they need light just as we do. Before we see the light, we also will not realize our mistakes. If our brother or sister is unrighteous, we cannot brush them aside, ignore them, reject them, or cut them off. We have to pray for them and ask God to give them the light to see. It is useless for us to see the light alone; they have to see the light also. We have to learn to petition on behalf of others and learn to speak the truth in love. At the same time, we have to deal with ourselves in a strict way. We have to remember that we are God's righteousness on earth today. In our daily living, we have to express God as the righteous God. Only then will others give praise and glory to our God. May God make every one of us a righteous person. God's salvation is righteous. May we express God's righteousness on earth by realizing His righteousness, and may we express this righteousness in everything.
