On several occasions, I have been in conversations where I have bluntly asked someone, “are you righteous in the sight of God?”, and then the person in question would hesitate, they would pause, and consider their life and their behaviors, and then with shakiness in their voice answer “I think so...”. This reveals the fact that when it comes to righteousness, such people as the ones I have spoken with, really have no confidence at all in their righteous standing before God; and it’s precisely for this reason that they aren’t standing on the proper foundation… they aren’t standing in Christ, but instead are looking at their own behaviors and performance and judging their righteousness and their standing before God based on that, instead of on the finished work of Christ.
This has a more damaging effect than you may imagine at first, because righteousness by faith in Christ is at the very core of our new identity, and it is very important to successful spiritual warfare; to the utilization of our power in Christ. As we studied last week, God has given us power; He wants us to have it and make use of it… but we will never have success, unless we stand on the proper foundation, and approach from the correct perspective.
So today in this study, we look at the importance of knowing, truly knowing beyond doubt that you are righteous.