THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

It’s been almost 50 years ago now that I first heard about the gift of righteousness. Recently, however, the Lord has stirred up a desire in me to re-dig the wellsprings of miracles and supernatural power in my life. As I was pondering this, I realized something that is revolutionizing my approach to healing and other manifestations of God’s promises: recognizing the gift of righteousness in our lives is a vital key to a miraculous walk with the Lord. It truly is one of the most important truths in the Scriptures and in our everyday lives.

The simple definition of righteousness is “being right with God;” and this is the heart cry of every serious believer—and actually the heart cry of most unbelievers too if they were honest with themselves. Throughout mankind’s history, God has always made a means available whereby people could be in right standing and relationship with Him. Adam and Eve’s righteousness would have been maintained by simply obeying the rules He gave them: to dress and keep the garden and to not eat of the tree of knowledge. The patriarchs of old, such as Noah and Abraham, were counted righteous according to their faith in God and their belief in the coming Messiah. With Moses came a new mandate to be counted righteous: to keep the law that God gave His people (Deuteronomy 6:25). In the New Testament, a new standard for righteousness was initiated when the Messiah paid the price for redemption and forgiveness. The rules changed, and now it is a gift that God gives us freely because the price was paid by the innocent and holy blood of the Lamb.

Righteousness is no longer an action that we take but a reality that we must believe. The following verse of scripture alone heralds the true value of the gift of righteousness.

For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. ~Romans 5:17

This is not a gimmick or a game. It is a foundational truth that we must believe and accept if we are to reign in life. Notice that it says that you must receive the gift of righteousness if you desire to reign in life. The purpose of this article is to show you how to receive it and walk in the victory of this gift.

What is the Gift of Righteousness?

The words used to describe this gift provide explanation enough to realize what it is. The fact that it is a noun shows that it is a thing, and more specifically, a gift from God. This gift shows that He accepts you and resolves all of your sin, guilt, and unworthiness. The gift of righteousness allows you to stand before Him totally sinless and worthy to receive His promises. In addition, it also includes His great desire to fellowship with you. God had to abolish sin in you before He moved the Holy Spirit into you, because He will not dwell in a contaminated vessel. God is light and in Him is no darkness. He does not fellowship with unrighteousness.

As we study the usages of the word righteousness throughout the Scriptures, we discover some interesting things. The root word for righteousness is “right.” Right? “Right” can be a noun, an adjective, an adverb, or a verb. “Righteous” is an adjective that describes the state of being right. “Righteousness” is an extended form of the adjective that intensifies the substance of the noun and emphasizes the gift of being right before God. We already saw that it was a noun, but in this instance, “righteousness” is a concrete noun, rather than an abstract entity. However, it is more than just a simple noun because it is in the extended form of the adjective. It holds the same relationship as “conscious” does to “consciousness” and “faith” does to “faithfulness.” It makes the noun have more emphasis because it is an extension of the adjective “righteous.”

In reality, the gift of righteousness is the God-given ability to be worthy and to feel worthy enough to receive His fellowship and blessings. In almost 50 years of ministry, I have discovered that unworthiness and sin-consciousness are perhaps the most life-strangling and grace-denying feelings that lurk in people’s minds and hearts. These feelings create one of the greatest deterrents to receiving the promises of God. The gift of righteousness abolishes sin-consciousness and instills within us a greater belief in His grace than we could ever have without it.

Imagine walking into a reception room full of spiritually gifted, anointed people waiting with great anticipation for the Lord to enter. But you look down at yourself and realize that you are clothed in rags and not at all dressed for the occasion. You feel completely unworthy to be there. As the others in the room begin to stare at you, you sink down into total unworthiness. But then Jesus walks up from behind, puts His arm around you, and announces to all those in the room, “This one is with me. He is my special guest.” That is the gift of righteousness. Jesus accepts you and makes you righteous in His sight.

The gift of righteousness abolishes sin-consciousness and unworthiness and allows the gifts of God’s grace and mercy to flow to you.

Doctrinal vs. Practical

Most, if not all, scriptural truths have both legal and doctrinal aspects to them and can be viewed from either perspective. Righteousness falls into that category, as does justification, sanctification, wisdom, and redemption. These treasures were both legally and doctrinally made unto us and for us by the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, according to 1 Corinthians 1:30.

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. ~1 Corinthians 1:30

It is undeniably an act of God’s grace and mercy that we have these things. The reason for this gift is explained in the previous verse—that no flesh should glory in His presence (1 Corinthians 1:29). The blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone made it available for those who believe in Him to receive these gifts of God’s goodness.

Yet, even though we have received these gifts through Christ’s sacrifice, there is still a practical side to walking in all of them. To help understand this practical side, we will look at the Greek word for “receive” in Romans 5:17, which is lambano. This word means to receive something and use it. In other words, we don’t just receive it and then just let it sit idly by without doing something useful with it.  

For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. ~Romans 5:17

For these gifts to be beneficial, they must be used. Even though we would be deemed righteous in a true spiritual court of law and are viewed that way in heaven, we will not see the benefits of it here on earth if we do not tap into the abundance of grace God has given us. The Scriptures hold practical keys that can help us experience the gift of righteousness that God has given us through Christ.

What Does the Gift of Righteousness Do?

The gift of righteousness cleanses your spirit of sin, transgression, and iniquity, preparing the way for the Holy Spirit to live in you. The price that was paid for this gift and for your forgiveness was the precious, sinless blood of Jesus Christ. When He shed His innocent blood, it was so that the gift of righteousness could be given to you. His blood was the payment for your justification. The verb form of justification is “justified.” (We like to remember it through the phrase, “Just as if I’d never sinned.”) Once you have received this gift, your fellowship with God is secured and your spirit is made righteous for all eternity.

Before Jesus shed His blood on the cross, righteousness depended upon things that people did, such as keeping the law. Obeying God is always the right thing to do, but in His great love for us God gave us the gift of righteousness so that we could stand in His presence without any sense of sin, guilt, or condemnation. This reminds me of my college days when I got into a lot of trouble and was just plain guilty. I lied to my Mom and Dad for over a year, and it almost drove me to a drug addiction because the guilt was so strong in my heart. When I finally came to myself like the prodigal son, I went to my Dad and told him the truth. He said he had known all along, but felt that he had to wait for me to be convicted by God to be honest and repent. I will never forget him saying, “I love you son and I always will. I forgive you for lying to me—now let’s see what we can do to keep you out of jail.” That kind of unconditional love prompted me to do better and motivated me to live a holy life. This is what the gift of righteousness does for us: it demonstrates our heavenly Father’s love to such a degree that we do not want to sin and disappoint Him.

So not only does this gift make you worthy to stand in His presence; it also motivates us to live a holy and righteous life. When lived out practically, the gift of righteousness will destroy the faith blockers of condemnation and other hindrances that keep us from living the fullness of life God wants for us.

Righteousness Makes You Worthy to Receive God’s Promises

From the bottom of my heart, the truth that righteousness makes you worthy to receive God’s promises is why I am writing this article. I have been in the miracle business for a long time and ministered God’s promises to many people. And yet, I have witnessed multiple times when God’s gift of healing or provision is not received—simply because the recipient does not feel worthy enough.

In reality, there are only two things you can do with a gift. You can either take it or leave it. Our heavenly Father made us worthy to receive His promises via His great gift of righteousness.

Once you have received it as a gift, it is yours; yet it still needs to be applied and used, not just received and possessed. The way this is done is by grasping and applying the worthiness you already have through His gift of righteousness. It doesn’t matter if you are applying it so that you can have the faith to minister to someone or if you are doing it to overcome feelings of unworthiness. As I said before, there have been times that the Lord has provided me with a gift of grace to give to someone, i.e., a gift of healing or a miracle, but the person thinks that he is not good enough to receive it. The gift of righteousness, when it is received and used properly, will destroy that sense of unworthiness and allow the promise of God to flow freely into that person.  

One of my spiritual sons recently gave me a new pistol. Although I had copious pistols destroyed in my house fire a couple of years ago, none were as nice as this one. I was overjoyed to say the least. As he handed it to me, I was overcome and did not feel worthy to receive it. He had also made a beautiful leather holster and engraved my initials into it. As I looked at it and then at him, tears filled my eyes and I said, “Are you sure you want to give this to me?” He calmly replied, “I have been waiting six months to give this to you.” I now reflect upon that incident and see that what the Lord taught me through it is worth more than the pistol itself. It was a gift from my spiritual son’s heart and I learned to overcome my feelings of unworthiness and receive it with gratitude.

This is so similar to receiving God’s promises. Not only did He make His many promises available by His grace but He also gave us the gift of righteousness so that we could receive them. He prepared His promises for you a long time ago, but only as you recognize that you are worthy can you now receive them.

Righteous by Faith

“Faith” is the noun form of the verb “believe.” It is also a substantive noun, meaning it is not an abstract concept but an actual commodity. The Bible is quite clear that our righteousness now comes from faith, or believing. Your faith in what Christ did for you puts that gift of righteousness in you. And faith (or believing) is how it is used and applied.

And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. ~Philippians 3:9

In reality, you are as righteous as God because you received His gift. Yet, how righteous do you believe you are? Doctrinally, you are as righteous as God; but practically, you are as righteous as you believe you are.

Do you believe that God has given you the gift of righteousness? To really believe it, you must magnify God’s goodness and gift over your feelings of unworthiness.

I was recently ministering to a very close friend whose hand was swollen from an injury. As I held his hand in mine, I felt the gift of healing in my own hands—yet it was not moving into his hand. I stopped mid-sentence, because I knew if the faith blocker was not removed, the healing would not manifest. I looked at him and said, “You know that God has forgiven your sins and that by the gift of righteousness you are worthy to receive this.” He exhaled a big breath and responded softly, “The reason my hand is hurt is because I got mad and hit a wall.” He continued, “I know that I will not be healed if I don’t receive God’s forgiveness and forgive myself.” I reminded him of the gift of righteousness, and as he gave up his guilt and believed he was righteous by grace and not by his works, the healing flowed into his hand and we both witnessed the swelling diminish immediately in front of our eyes.

This is where the application of the gift of righteousness is vital—it enables you to forgive yourself. When Jesus healed the man of lameness after he was let down through the hole in the roof (Mark 2:1–12), He said, “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go your way to your house.”

The reason the man had the infirmity is because of sin and sin-consciousness. When Jesus pronounced the forgiveness of sin, the man believed it, got up, took up his bed, and walked out of the room. Jesus helped him by forgiving his sins. Now we can do the same thing by receiving the gift of righteousness through faith, thus recognizing the forgiveness of our sins. And we can help others do the same so that they recognize that their sins are forgiven, which then removes the faith blockers so that they also can receive God’s other promises.

Conclusion

We have been given the gift of righteousness by our faith in Jesus Christ. Now believe it! You will never be any more righteous than you are right now. Since our Christian walk began by grace, why should we think it is any different now? Receive the gift of righteousness and recognize your worthiness. The gift of righteousness removes the faith blockers of sin-consciousness and unworthiness and allows the promises of God to come to you.

Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. ~James 3:18

Once the gift of righteousness is given to you, continuing to walk in that right standing with God and His Word will produce a peace in you that is beyond description. His peace will permeate your whole being, making you a walking billboard of His quiet acquiescence everywhere you go.

This is receiving the gift of righteousness “into usage” so that its fruit is evidenced in you.

Do you believe you are righteous? You are righteous by God’s grace and His gift of righteousness. Do not allow sin or any feeling of unworthiness stand in the way of receiving His promises.

For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. ~Romans 5:17

Those of us who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by Jesus Christ. Believe it and walk in it!  

©2019 Dale M. Sides