I kind of want to retitle this set of articles…The Cowtown Chronicles. I wrote these while working there with a great family. Until my book is complete, I’m recycling blogs from 2012-14. Hope you enjoy. This one is one of my favorites.
Romans 5:19
“For as by the one man’s
disobedience the many were
made sinners, so by the one
man’s obedience the many
will be made righteous.”
ESV
Hermie came up to me and asked, “Can a man be righteous without doing right?”
I wanted to say (but didn’t), “Nope, you can’t. You must do right to be righteous.”
While I was thinking, Hermie replied, “Now, ask the Holy Spirit for an answer before you answer.”
In the back of my mind I was thinking, “I know that it’s only by Jesus Christ that I am made righteous. I flub up, and I’m still saved and made righteous because of the sacrifice of Jesus. So to be righteous, do I actually have to do right?” So I piped up, “Okay Hermaneus, what’s rolling around in your brain?”
Then he said, “Think about it from this angle, did Jesus ever do wrong?”
“Well no.”
“Did Jesus become sin?”
“Well yes. He had to according to 2 Corinthians 5:21 which says, ‘For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’ And in Galatians 3:13 it says that ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us’.”
Then Hermie replied, “So Jesus became our sin without ever sinning?”
“Okay Hermster, now I’m following you. Just like Jesus became sin without sinning because God put our sin on Jesus, we are made right, even in our mistakes, if we’ve taken Jesus’ righteousness by faith that’s given by God. Am I understanding your line of thought?”
“Yep.”
How can I be righteous even after I fall? The same way Jesus became our sin without sinning. The Bible never tells us to use grace to live wrongly or to sin. But the Bible makes it very clear that no one becomes righteous by their own good deeds or efforts.
By Aaron F. Jeffers
Free to Live Ministries 