HAVE YOU RECEIVED THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST?
Wealth is useful when facing human justice. It pays for attorneys and even judges of a certain type. Yet, “riches do not profit” when we face the judgment seat of God. All the treasure in the world is useless on that day. As one has said, “You never see a hearse towing a UHaul.” However, this is not a diatribe against affluence, but a warning against short term thinking. Worldly wealth only gives the illusion of security, the instant we breath our last, that fantasy evaporates. Worldly currency has no value in heaven.
But righteousness, or “godliness” as the apostle Paul calls it, “is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4:8). Therefore, pursue righteousness, which is only found in Christ Jesus. For God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). How do we exchange our sin for this heavenly currency of righteousness? Believe. Believe in what God has done for you in Christ. As as it was said of Abraham, “He believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness,” so shall it be for you. Only the righteousness that comes from believing in Christ delivers from the final death sentence.
PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for accounting the righteousness of Christ to us when we believed the gospel. For You have given us a new heart and have sealed us with the Holy Spirit, so that there is no condemnation on those who are in Christ Jesus. Strengthen us to proclaim this message to the nations. In Jesus’ name, amen.