Righteous or Sinner

“God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 NET

There is a statement that I hear way too often from Christians. It is a statement that, when I hear it, it is most often when people are praying. It goes something like this..."Oh Father, we who are not worthy to be in your presence," or "Dear God, I know I am a lowly sinner, but please hear my voice." These are statements made by those who claim to be Christians. The truth is, when Jesus died and rose again, when He took all of the sin of the world on Himself, He did it so that when we would call on Him as Lord (become a Christian, a believer), we would no longer be sinners, but righteous! If you are a Christian, a believer, a follower of The Way (as the first century Christians put it), then you ARE righteous and not a sinner. In fact, you can be no more righteous than you are right now. This goes back to knowing who you are in Christ. Now follow me on this one...you may say, "but Kent, I call Jesus my Lord but I still do things wrong, I don't do what I should do, I still continue to sin." Those are things you do, not who you are in Christ. Before you became a Christian, you were a sinner who occasionally did things right. But since you became a Christian, you are righteous in the sight of God but who occasionally does things wrong. When you begin to see yourself as righteous in the sight of God, your behavior will begin to change, and the things you occasionally do wrong will slowly become less and less over time.

Take Away: Start seeing yourself the way God sees you, righteous I and not a sinner. As you do this, your behavior will slowly change.