WE do not grow in Righteousness. We are made Righteous, and Righteousness is credited to us. God Himself is our Righteousness and He made Jesus to be Righteousness unto us. There is no such thing as growth in Righteousness. There is growth in the knowledge of what Righteousness means. There is growth in acting as though we were Righteous. There is growth in faith in our Righteousness.
Very few people have any faith in their Righteousness in Christ. They have faith in their weakness and their lack of ability, but few have any faith in the thing that God has made them to be. This is an unhappy fact. Until we have confidence in our own standing before the Father, in our own Righteousness in Christ, we will never have faith that will bring blessing to ourselves and others. Faith is destroyed by Sin Consciousness. Faith is built up and made invincible by Righteousness Consciousness.
This entire problem rests upon our estimation of the Word. If we have a low estimation of the Word, then we will have a low estimation of our Righteousness in Christ. If we have a low estimation of the Word, our faith will be weak and vacillating. But if we believe the Word, rest on the Word,' know that no Word from God is untrue and that God cannot lie, then our faith becomes strong.
When we say that God cannot lie we mean that the Word cannot lie. It is the Word with which we are dealing. The Word is the contract, the Covenant, the legal instrument with which we have to do. It is more than a legal document. It is a living document. It becomes a living force in our lives as we act upon it. A low estimate of the New Covenant or the New Testament will bring a low estimate of the work that Christ did. A low estimate of the Word and of the work that Christ did is hound to react in our lives.
Men and women will see at once that there is something weak and inefficient in our lives.
When we believe Rom. 4:25, it will be manifested in our lives, in our conduct. "Who was delivered up on the account of our trespasses and was raised because we were declared righteous." People will feel it in our conversation. But if we doubt the efficacy of His finished work, every phase of our life will show it. The reason people cannot get their healing is. because of a low estimation of the Word and of the finished work of Christ. When we have the proper estimation of the finished work of Jesus Christ, we know that "By His stripes we are healed," and we need no one to pray for us.
We know we are healed, and with joy we thank Him for it. All this trying to be worthy, trying to be Righteous, crying and agonizing before the Lord, is the product of a low estimation of the integrity of the Word of God. When we know that the Word is true, that we are what the Word says we are, and that we can do all the Word says we can, we begin at once to take our place, assert our authority, and enjoy our privileges in Christ. We grow in grace. Grace is love unvelied, love in action. It is love doing things.
We can grow in that. We can let love dominate us. Then we will reveal Jesus in our conduct. We can grow in love until our whole life is saturated with it, until every motive will be born of it, until every word will have its fragrance. We are Righteous from the time we are Born Again. Faith grows as we walk in the Word. We grow in knowledge of our Righteousness, what it can mean to us, and its vast privileges and responsibilities.
We do not grow in sonship, though we may grow in the knowledge of what sonship means.
Perhaps the clearest definition of what we are in Christ is given in Heb. 10:38, "But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrink back, my soul bath no pleasure in him."
God calls the church His "righteous one." He speaks of us individually as His righteous one. If we draw back into the Sense Realm of dead works, we rob Him of the joy that belongs to Him.
Man's Real Need Is Met
Jesus in His great High Priestly prayer in John 17:3 said, "And this is life eternal that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ." The word "true" means "real". "That they should know thee the only real God."
We may have many theories and facts which men have gathered concerning God, but we will never know Him as a Father until we receive Eternal Life.
We will never know the real Christ until we receive Eternal Life. We may know about Him, may have read volumes about Him, but until we receive Eternal Life we will never know Him in reality. Jesus is the light of the world. He is the Life. The Life is the oil which, when ignited by love, gives light. This love God and this love Christ are both living realities. He said, "I am the way, and the reality, and the life." Real philosophy is a search after God. The moment the philosopher finds Eternal Life, he stops being a philosopher and becomes a realist.
God is love. Eternal Life is the love nature of God. When we receive Eternal Life, we receive His love nature. Then that love nature begins to dominate us, and gain the ascendency in our lives. 1 John 4:16 tells us about abiding in love, making our home in love. "And we know and have believed the love which God hath in our case. God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him." It is a love life. We are beginning to walk in Him and with Him. It makes a companion of Him.
"If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him." John 14:23. Can we ask for anything more beautiful than that? Jesus and the Father will come and make their home with us-no matter how humble it is. They will make it beautiful. They will make it a safe place for children to be born. No quarreling, no bitterness, no divorces can ever come into the home where Jesus lives. This home life with Jesus is the mother of faith. It makes our home relationship beautiful.
We meet dishonesty and faithlessness without saying an unkind word. We enter into a new kind of life where we never think of being neglected, forgotten or ignored. We never remember anything that is unkind. This new love is life: this new life is love. We forgive those who are dishonest because this new life has taken possession of us. We are taking Jesus' place in the earth. We are loving as Jesus would love. We are giving as Jesus would give. We are as helpful as the Master would be in our place. We live with Him. His love is our love. His strength is our strength. His ability is ours. We are His own love slaves. We love Him because He loves us.
Two Kinds of Righteousness
