What’s Your Status?

All men have some kind of relationship with God whether we believe in Him or not. We are all connected to Him in some way. Hebrews 4:13 calls God, “Him with whom we have to do.” We either have a right relationship with God or a wrong one. Please note that when I talk of a right relationship and a wrong one I am using God’s definitions. I will expand on this shortly.

God’s word describes a right relationship with Him, that is, being connected to God the right way, as righteousness. Similarly, being in a wrong relationship with God, or being wrongly connected to Him, is described by God as unrighteousness.
Romans 10:9-10 tells us how to be rightly connected or in a right relationship with God. John 3:18 tells us how people remain in a wrong relationship, or wrongly connected to Him. Let us read the following verses for a better understanding:

Romans 10: 9-10
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation

Romans 4:5
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

John 3:18
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Simply stated:
(1) If you believe on God’s Son Jesus, that he died and rose for your sins, and has the power to save you, and if you confess him as your Lord and Saviour, you are saved. Your heart-faith and mouth’s confession put you in a right-relationship with God. That is, you are made righteous, you are saved.

(2) If you do not believe on God’s son Jesus and his power to save you from sin, you are not saved, but your unbelief (not God) condemns you. You are in a wrong relationship with God. The Bible calls this unrighteousness.

We each have the free will to choose, either to be saved by our faith in Jesus or to be condemned by our unbelief in him. Our relationship with God is ours to make or break. There is no middle ground. There is no fence to sit on. If you have not yet made a decision you have not chosen God’s righteousness. You are in a wrong relationship with God, along with those who have chosen not to believe on His Son.

Before Jesus came to this earth, people became righteous by obeying the Law of God. After Jesus’ death and resurrection God shows us a new kind of righteousness, a new way to get rightly connected to Him:

Romans 3:22
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference.

We cannot earn God’s righteousness. We can only receive it by faith in Jesus. Any effort on our part to “do enough good” to earn it is called our own righteousness, not God’s. In fact, God calls such efforts “filthy rags”.

Isaiah 64:6
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.

Let us not be ignorant of what God requires of us. Let us not shun God’s invitation to salvation and His free gift of righteousness

Romans 10: 3
For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Romans 3:22
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference.

Philippians 3:9
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is of God by faith.

Sir, madam, what is your spiritual status? Are you in a right relationship with God or a wrong one? Notice that God has clearly defined what He accepts as right or wrong. If you design your own righteousness you do not have the righteousness of God; according to John 3:18 you have therefore condemned your own self. If you have not yet made a choice, you are presently without the righteousness of God. There is no fence to sit on. I therefore urge you to choose now, and to choose wisely.

If you have not yet asked Jesus to save you from sin, to be your Lord and to grant you his righteousness, but would like to do so, please pray along with me, out loud:

Heavenly Father, I come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe that he died for my sin. I believe that you raised him from the dead for my justification. I confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and I receive him today as my Lord and Saviour, and I give God the glory.

Welcome to the family and the household of God!

John 1:12
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

Ephesians 2:19
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

If you would like further information to help you grow spiritually please send me an email requesting such.

May the goodness of God follow you and your loved ones through this week. May He order your steps and His word light your path. May you continue to seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, and in so doing, all His blessings shall be added unto you. In Jesus’ name, amen.