I’m a new me. When I heard the gospel, something was unveiled to me. I had been unhappy, unfulfilled and full of sorrows. But that changed when the real deal unveiled that Jesus paid the price for me.
It’s an amazing truth!
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” – GALATIANS 2:20 (NIV)
Jesus gave Himself for me.
Sadly, I think many Christians’ beliefs are based in flesh when it comes to God’s attitude towards them. I think sometimes we as Christians believe that God loved us more when we were sinners than He does now that we’re saved.
Certain Christian music tells us how miserable we are and how unrighteous we must be to God (we’re just worms and sinners; how can you ever love me), yet Jesus gave His life for us. We may not have deserved it, but God placed so much value in us that He sent His Son Jesus to lay His life down for us so that we could become new creatures in Christ: a new me!
We’re to live out our “new me.”
“So here I am dead and alive at the same time! I’m dead to the old me I was trying to be and alive to the real me which is Christ in me! Co-crucified, now co-alive! What a glorious entanglement! I was in Him in His death; now I discover that He is infused in me, in my life! For the first time, I’m free to be me in my skin, immersed in His faith in our joint-sonship! He loves me and believes in me! He is God’s gift to me!” – GALATIANS 2:20 (MIRROR)
I was dead but now I’m alive. Jesus loves me and believes in me; He’s God’s gift to me!
God is all about us. Matthew 6:33 tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That means we’re to seek God as being righteous and us as being righteous.
The word “righteousness” is used 92 times in the New Testament. That makes that very important to God! It’s paramount to the believer’s life to understand what righteousness is. What’s the word mean? It’s the “state of him who is as he ought to be; the condition acceptable to God.”
We need to be careful: sometimes we try to believe God based on what we do rather than what He’s done, including gaining righteousness. But righteousness can only be obtained by faith. If righteousness could be gained through works (Galatians 2:21), that would have meant that Jesus Christ died for nothing!
Romans 3:20 states, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” There is only one reason the law exists: to show us we need Jesus. So, what do we do when we get Jesus? We live out who we are in Him.
Unveiled: Wrong Unveil, Right Unveil
When we as Christians evangelize, we need to actually preach the gospel. We shouldn’t be telling people, “You need to get right with God, you miserable sinner, or you’re going to hell.” Yes, apart from Christ, we all need Jesus. But just as with us, God has already made the very people we’re evangelizing right with Himself…but they have to believe it and confess the truth of it (Romans 10:9-10).
The Good News is that God loves everyone. He sent Jesus to die for everyone. As many as received Him (John 1:12), He gave the right to become children of God, born of Him. He’s forgiven all our sins.
The good news unveils the righteousness of God.
“16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” – ROMANS 1:16-17 (NKJV)
Verse 17 in the Passion translation says, “This gospel unveils a continual revelation of God’s righteousness…”
Every time you see “righteous” or “justified”, it’s talking about what God’s made us to be.
“21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. 22 The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction.
“23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Him as the mercy seat by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.” – ROMANS 3:21-26 (CSB)
When people evangelize, a lot of times they preach judgment. And before Jesus made His sacrifice, there was judgment; there was no mercy seat. After Jesus’ sacrifice, God presented Jesus as the mercy seat, and because of His blood shed, that seat cries out “they’ve been made right with Me.”
It’s the perfect redemption, the perfect righteousness that we can’t obtain on our own. Jesus was presented to demonstrated God’s righteousness to us before we received it (before we were even born!). His justice and righteousness were demonstrated by making us right.
The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, not to just some of us. One person is not more righteous than any other person. Everybody on the earth has been made equally righteous to God…but it’s when you believe it that you receive and become that righteousness.
Romans 10:10 says it’s with the heart that one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. When we believe, we are automatically made righteous with God, but we also get salvation. We’re made righteous; we get salvation. My state of righteousness will never change, but my salvation state will.
You can’t live out what you don’t know. When you give your life to Christ, you then start working out your salvation. You start considering, “Okay, I’m saved; what does this mean to me? What does this look like to me?” And then you start walking from faith to faith to faith where you suddenly start to get a revelation where to change and you start living out the things that God shows you.
We’re still just as righteous on Day 1001 as we were on Day 1; but during that time, we’ve probably learned more about our salvation and made changes.
Here’s a final scripture to think on:
“4 The irresistible attraction seen in Him, the Living Stone, is not at all compromised by the fact that man-made religious structures rejected Him; He is esteemed most precious and remains the original and pivotal idea of God!
“5 Now, present yourselves likewise as living stones [co-quickened in His resurrection] to be co-constructed, and seamlessly joined into a spiritual house; you are a priestly people, wholly consecrated to engage a new spiritual order, no longer sacrifices of blood, but your lives, reflecting God’s delight and face-to-face embrace. Everything that was prophetically mirrored in the shadow tabernacle of Israel, has finally found its relevance in Jesus Christ; He fully unveils the real deal; the temple, the priestly-order and the people are all one in Him.” – 1 PETER 2:4-5 (MIRROR)
Watch the entire May 15, 2022 service on which this post is based by CLICKING HERE.
It’s part of our A New Me series.
