Walking In the Reality of Righteousness

Introduction

Imagine the world if sin had never entered the planet. What would life be like for us today if Adam and Eve had never sinned? What would it be like to have never known darkness, confusion, or fear? What would it be like to have never known weakness, pain, disease, or death? What would it be like to have never known alienation from God’s love, peace, power, or life?

Well, that’s what righteousness is about. It’s about us being able to know God in all that He is and has to offer. It’s about us knowing the innocence and joy man had before he sinned. It’s about us finding our purpose and fulfilling our destiny. It’s about us unleashing on the world our creative gifting. Righteousness is about us walking in boldness, freedom, and authority. And it’s about us knowing what it’s like to walk with God in the cool of the day, like Adam did before he fell.

Christians dream of such a life. They hear it preached plenty of times, but they live as if they’re condemned to the life they had before Christ. They’re born again, yet they don’t feel like the old man has passed away. They don’t feel like anything new has come. To many of them, Jesus represents a vague future hope. Though they ardently believe, they remain hard-pressed to prove on a daily basis the validity of their faith.

Righteousness turns our hopeless, empty life into a daily experience of the reality and goodness of God. We suddenly become capable of victory over our weaknesses, circumstances, and enemies. We no longer have to be hounded by our failures, because they’ve been washed away along with our sins. Our fears can no longer stop us, because they’re crushed under our faith. Through righteousness, we become capable of things we never dreamed possible.

The only question is: are we willing to do what is necessary to walk in the righteousness God gave us in Christ Jesus? Righteousness is the meat of the Gospel. It’s not for babies, lazy, carnal Christians, or the fearful. It demands that you change how you see God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It demands that you change how you see yourself and your relationship to God. It demands that you change how you see your purpose and place in the world around you. If you’re willing to make those changes, then you are ready for righteousness.

However, don’t think that you can casually read this book and get what righteousness is about. This book is not written for the casual reader. It’s written for the serious student of the Bible. It’s written for the one who is fed up with where his life is at in its present complacency and ineffectiveness. It’s written for the one who is hungry enough for change to apply himself to it.