The Righteousness Of God In Christ

Joyce: Mark we’re talking about our right standing with god through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and through our faith in him. That’s a very difficult thing to really grasp and take into yourself because we’re so accustomed to basing our worth and value on what we do rather than who we are, but the fact is biblically we’ve been given a right standing with god through our faith in Jesus Christ but the bible says we have to put it on which I think is very interesting.  I have clothes in my closet but I didn’t just go stand in my closet this morning and this jumped on my body. I had to choose it, I had to take it, and I had to put it on because it was my clothes. I put them on. In Ephesians 6, which you well know, the bible’s teaching us about spiritual warfare, how we can have authority over the devil and one of the things it says is a part of our armor is righteousness called a breastplate of righteousness here; in Isaiah, it’s called a robe of righteousness. But it says you have to put it on, so how do you do that?

Mark: Actually there in Ephesians 4:22, 23, 24, he literally says now you put off the old man with his deeds and your former conversation and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man, who he says is created in righteousness and true holiness. So, we didn’t make the clothes, we didn’t buy the clothes. Actually Jesus provided this armor, he provided the clothes. All you and I have to do is take the word of god and put it on, so the moment we take the word in the renewing of our mind, I like what “dad hagin” used to say; he says your mind doesn’t stay renewed anymore than your hair stays combed. That means sometimes you can challenge your own attitudes and your own thinking and get it right today and yet, tomorrow you have to go right back to renewing your mind with the word of God, and while you’re renewing your mind, you’re literally getting dressed up in who you are in Christ.  You dress up yourself with an attitude of faith and a spirit of faith and great confidence, and you go out and face the world, not as the challenger but as the champion. In other words, we don’t fight for victory; we always fight from victory. Jesus already gave us the victory and there still is a fight to faith but we’re fighting from a championship that he gave to us. So sometimes we just need to go “ha-ha-ha-ha! I’m not trying to get this. Jesus got it for me. It’s mine.  I have it now.” and just develop an attitude, number one, of victory, an attitude of confidence and put on the Lord Jesus Christ, who we are in him.

Joyce: what you were saying about the mind is so extremely important.  First of all, in Romans 12:2, it says that god has a good plan for our life, a wonderful plan, but that we have to have our mind completely renewed if we want to prove out or actually experience that plan. I think a lot of people talk about the promises of god and the sweet by-and-by and how good things are gonna be when we get to heaven but the fact is when you receive eternal life through Christ, that starts that moment. It’s not just when you go to heaven; it starts right then. The bible says that you receive life and life eternal, so a life while I’m here right now but none of it’s gonna become mine if i don’t believe it. Once again a very simple example, you could be a multi-millionaire but if you didn’t know you had any money, you’d live like a beggar.

Mark: or you’d starve to death with a pocket full of money outside of a grocery store.

Joyce Meyer Online: How do you handle this? How were you able to live this lifestyle and avoid all that stuff?” because when they come to you, now they’re looking for answers. When you go to them, a lot of times they’re just waiting to get out of there and they’re counting the seconds until this guy leaves my locker. So that’s always been one of my prayers, just to live consistently enough that people are drawn to me.