David Diga Hernandez - What is Righteousness in God's Eyes?

So, when I talk about you standing before God perfected. I’m talking about standing in the righteousness of Christ. I’m talking about standing in the finished work of the cross. When Jesus was crucified and God looked upon Him, God saw your sin. So, after you’ve put your faith in the finished work of the cross, when God looks at you, He sees the righteousness of Christ. There was an exchange made at the cross. He took upon Himself, our sin and in exchange He gave us His righteousness. We take on the righteousness of Christ. We stand in that righteousness by faith.

Now, of course we live holy. We strive to live in holiness. We strive to live in righteousness. We strive to do the will of God. We avoid sinful things, not as an attempt to save ourselves but rather as an offering of worship to thank God for having saved us. Those who’ve truly been saved. Those who’ve truly been transformed have a desire for holiness. So, I’m not saying that you don’t need to live holy. You absolutely need to live holy because that desire for holiness comes about as a result of God having saved you. But you must recognize that your position in Him secures you in righteousness. God looks and sees the righteousness of Christ when He sees you. I know it may not always feel that way, but that’s because we have the tendency to think in religious fashions. We try to save ourselves.

But there’s nothing that you or I could do to save ourselves for the scripture says in Romans 3:20, «For no one can ever be made right with God, by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are». So again, let me clarify this. We’re saved by faith and we put that faith in the finished work of the cross. When we’ve put our faith in the finished work of the cross, when we’ve put our faith in Jesus, we by faith take on the righteousness of Christ. And so we are righteous before God. We are perfect before God. We are holy before God. It’s already done. This does not mean that we can just go on sinning. Rather, this means that because we’ve been positioned in righteousness that there will be a true, genuine desire to begin to live holy.

If you have a desire to live holy, if you’re frustrated with your sin, if you’re frustrated with your flesh, if you have this desire to be like Christ, that is evidence that you are in fact in the righteousness of Christ. But we have to make this clear because the scripture makes it clear that in no way could you ever save yourself. We are desperately lost without Christ. The law is rules, regulations, codes, standards and the law can’t save anyone. Why? Because we fail. You see if we were saved by the law, then we would be the ones saving ourselves because we would be the ones fulfilling the law but no one can save themselves. The law is simply a mirror that God gives us. A mirror in which we can see our spiritual reflections, our spiritual state, our spiritual flaws. When we look into the word of God, we see ourselves reflected in truth and we see how we don’t measure up to God’s standard.

So, God’s law was given to us as a standard to show how holy He is. James 1:22–25 says this, «But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves for if you listen to the word and don’t obey it, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free and if you do what it says, and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it». So, the law is the standard that God gives us. It’s the mirror that he says here is my holiness and here is how you compare to my holiness. The law was given to us that we might see that we could never be like God on our own. So, that’s the place, that’s the purpose of the law.

Now, Romans 1:16 says this, «For I am not ashamed of this good news about Christ. It is the power of God at work saving everyone who believes. The Jew first and also the Gentile». Now, what is this good news? What is this wonderful story that God wants us to hear about? It’s the fact that Christ fulfilled the law. Christ lived a perfect sinless life and that by putting our faith in Him we too can have that righteousness. Matthew 5:17 says, «Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose».

So Jesus, when he was here upon the earth lived a life of absolute perfection. He lived unto perfection. Every minute of every day, every second of every minute, Christ was in the perfect wheel of God. Never once violating God’s holy standard, never once sinning, never once allowing Himself to indulge in a worldly pleasure that contradicted the nature of God. Christ lived unto perfection. So, here’s how it works. You know, I travel a lot and probably my least favorite way to travel is by airplane. But it’s also the most efficient. I don’t like traveling by plane because you kind of just sit there in a tube for several hours and you have to deal with the airport and the baggage claim and the this and the that. And it’s a little bit chaotic.

I enjoy the idea of traveling, but actually being in an airplane is not one of my favorite places to be, but I’m thankful for the opportunity to travel for ministry. But I’m thankful in this sense I don’t have to drive those long distances. I don’t have to walk those long distances. I mean, think about the fact that years and years and years ago to go from the East Coast to the West Coast to the United States was a very long journey and possibly a deadly journey. People would get sick along the way. People would die along the way. Then came the invention of cars. Cars came along and caused us to be able to travel faster and then airplanes and now we can fly from the East Coast to the West Coast in about three or four hours. But you see, when I get on that plane all I have to do is sit there. All I have to do is stay on the plane. Sometimes, we’ll sit there. I’ll read a little bit. Sometimes they bring us snacks. But the whole time I’m just sitting there. I like to write a good portion of my books on the airplane and I’m working, I’m reading, we’re snacking. And then the ride is over. Then we’re at our destination.

Now, was I the one who flew from the East Coast to the West Coast? No, I simply trusted the pilot. I simply got in the plane. I simply boarded the craft. I stepped into the airplane and let it take me where I need it to go. In the same way, when we have faith in Christ, we are stepping into Him. We live righteously vicariously through Him. And in that vicarious living or in that living through Him we have the righteousness of Christ. All we have to do is remain in Him. All we have to do is stay seated. All we have to do is trust Him get on and go along for the ride.