Righteousness for the Ungodly

Righteousness for the Ungodly

It is an ugly picture and it is one that most of us do not want to view about ourselves.

All are sinners. All have turned away from God. All are ungodly. All are helpless to save themselves. All are unrighteous. “There is none that does good.”

That is the way the apostle Paul began the greatest book written on a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Now believe it or not, that is good news! We need to hear the bad news before we can receive the good news.

It is good news because God justifies the ungodly. God has a righteousness for the unrighteous. But God must do it. God looked upon us in our iniquity and demanded that sin be dealt with in justice. It was on the cross that God in the person of His Son took upon Himself the judgment that the ungodly sinner deserves and paid the penalty in full. We deserve to die because we are guilty. “The wages of sin is death . . .” (Rom. 6:23a). But Jesus Christ, the just and the holy One, died as our substitute on the cross (5:6, 8).

The Son of God, who is pure and holy, just and sinless, died because of your sins and mine as though He had been just as corrupt, wicked, and ungodly as we are. He took my judgment that I deserved and died in my place. He drank the depths of the cup of my judgment. “God forsaken of God.” Who can understand what Jesus Christ suffered for the ungodly except God alone?

“He [God] made Him [Jesus Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

Christ died for our sins, and God raised Him from the dead for our justification. God has provided the solution for our sin problem in the death and resurrection of Christ (Rom. 5:6, 8; 10:9-10).

Give up your all pretense of self-righteousness and put your confidence in the death of Jesus Christ to cover all your sins and God will justify you right now. God justifies the believing sinner who puts his faith in Christ alone to save him.

Are you bad enough to be saved? There is no salvation for the self-righteous, but there is salvation for the ungodly. Are you an ungodly sinner? Congratulations. If you will accept the finished work of Christ, God will justify you. You are the kind of person God justifies.

“Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness” (Rom. 4:4-5).

What must the ungodly sinner do to be pronounced righteous by a holy God? The Bible tells us there is only one thing you can do. You must believe on Jesus Christ as the one who died for you and rose from the dead. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31). John 1:12-13 says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Yes, “the wages of sin is death,” but the rest of the sentence says, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father will declare you right in His sight.

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006