Here’s a fact that so many Christians miss – you don’t become righteous, you are MADE righteous because of Jesus. “He made Christ who knew no sin to [judicially] be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God [that is, we would be made acceptable to Him and placed in a right relationship with Him by His gracious lovingkindness]” (2 Corinthians 5:21 Amp). In other words, God credits Jesus’ righteousness to us.
No matter how hard you try to earn God’s approval you are going to fail because for 1, you will never be sure that you have done enough to please Him and 2, God is so holy that your own righteousness will be like filthy rags to Him (Isa. 64:6). You will always be a sinner. You will always fail but if you believe in Jesus, all of that has been taken away from you and you stand before God as white and pure as Jesus.
Once you fully grasp that in Jesus you have been “declared righteous without working for it” (Rom. 4:6 NLT), you will rule in life. “If death ruled because of one person’s failure, those who receive the multiplied grace and the gift of righteousness will even more certainly rule in life through the one person Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17 CEB).
So what does it look like to “rule in life”? Chiefly it means that you will rule over all the afflictions, fears, distress and temptations that the devil wants to throw at you. All it takes is for you to assert that authority that you have been given by saying, “In the name of Jesus I command this sickness to go” or “In the name of Jesus I command release from this spirit of fear” or “In the name of Jesus I command these thoughts to flee.”
To sum up, if you believe in Jesus, you are righteous. You have been cleansed of all your sins. You are sitting with Jesus in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6). You have all the authority of Jesus. Go out and live victoriously for “in all these things we are more than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us]” (Rom. 8:37 Amp). Go out as a vanquisher “and the God of peace will bruise Satan under your feet quickly” (Rom. 16:20 LSV).
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