Believer, You Are Righteous

Some (rightly) wonder how Holy Spirit can live in us if we are unrighteous.

Many have wrongly taught that we are only positionally or judicially righteous. They say that God sees us as righteous and that when we leave this temporal life we will be made completely righteous in heaven. Or they teach that righteousness has been written down to our account, or we have been judged righteous but again, this will only be received by us in heaven.

The problem is that this isn't what the Scriptures teach. Perhaps a good starting point is 2 Corinthians 5:21 where we read that, "He [God] made Him who knew no sin [Jesus] to be sin [to be judged and sentenced as sinful] in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

From this passage, we learn that we are not simply declared to be righteous. We are not simply credited with righteousness. We are not even made righteous by some weak human standard. Rather, we became the very righteousness of God.

This is the reason Romans 5:17b can say that righteousness is a gift, "those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ."

Similarly, 1 Corinthians 1:30 tells us that, "it is due to Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." The Lord Jesus is our righteousness.

There was a very real change in us when we trusted the Lord Jesus.

We became new creatures, we were re-created (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Our old selves were crucified with Him (Romans 6:6).
We were raised to a whole new life (Romans 6:4-5).
We were given a new heart.
We were given a new spirit.
The Spirit of God began living in us (Ezekiel 36:26-27, Romans 8:11).

So then, Scripture teaches that you are righteous right now. This is true in the core of your being, your spirit, who you are. The Scriptures speak over and over of God living with, among, and in His people. This has been His plan since the beginning.

Here are a few more passages that help us see this wonderful and glorious truth.

“So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:19–22, NASB 2020)

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20, NASB 2020)

“Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.” (1 Corinthians 3:16–17, NASB 2020)

“For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell among them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (2 Corinthians 6:16, NASB 2020)