We ended the previous article with a consciousness of our new dwelling place in Jesus, where the Godhead also dwells.
In Jesus where you reside, you can only be alive to God and dead to sin – Rom. 6:10-11, “For the dead that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Likeness you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
A new mindset
Beloved, this is one of the first “in Christ Jesus” in the epistles. And it has to do with overcoming sin in your practical daily life.
The Bible says that just as sin was imputed to Jesus on the Cross, you should impute or consider yourself (dead to sin and) alive to God, if only you are residing in Jesus.
So, overcoming sin in your daily life has to do with how you consider or reckon yourself.
You must ‘see’ yourself residing in Jesus, so that you can live in righteousness. You must have this new mindset, my friend.
How to overcome sin practically
‘Sin’ is used mostly as a noun in the book of Romans – than as a verb. It infers that, in order to live practically over sin, you should understand that you have the position of righteousness (as a noun), once you are living in Jesus.
As a believer, God sees you as righteous, because it is the spiritual truth.
Beloved, just as Jesus did not only carry your sins but actually became sin on the Cross, so do you not only do righteous acts, but actually became the righteousness of God.
This was when you entered into Christ at the new birth.
Halleluiah!
Now, what this means is that, as a believer, you are so righteous that you are the righteousness of God. So, there is no point in trying to be righteous before God by your works, because you are already His righteousness.
And so, it is not the righteous activities you do as a believer that make you righteous. As a believer, certainly your practical righteous living shows that you are righteous, but it does not make you righteous.
What makes you righteous is your faith in Jesus, minus your practical righteous works. Hallelujah!
Righteousness in society
As the righteousness of God, you are in Him and He is in you. Now, because you are the righteousness of God, all positive things you do, whether in Church or at your secular jobs are righteous.
So, as far as you are concerned, it is not just activities like fasting and prayer, reading the Bible etc which are righteous acts. But, all other positive things you do, like working at your secular jobs, and other good out-of church activities to humanity are righteous as well.
Also, as the righteousness of God, the world is waiting for you to right all the wrongs around – See Rom. 8:18-21. So, whenever you show up, God has shown up to put things right in people’s lives and in society.
