Made the Righteousness of God in Him

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

For the last three days, I have been meditating on my new identity in Christ.

For everyone who believes in Jesus, they are members of a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD (1 Peter 2:9).

Not just priests, but kings and priests, like wonderful Melchizedek, the King of Righteousness who was also the Priest of God Most High.

This is who I am. I am in Christ, and as He is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17).

It's amazing how often I was still tying my identity to how I felt, or what I was thinking.

It's very trying, and tiresome, that I have to revisit and repeat this challenge for myself, but as I continue to see Jesus, I do find that indeed, I am transformed from glory to glory, beholding Him! (2 Corinthians 3:16-18).

It's no longer about correcting or changing my thoughts or feelings. It's not about me. It's all about Him.

Jesus, it's all about You!

I get it now! There is no more "I have to do my part", and it was so insidious, since for years, I was constantly fighting all the noise and nonsense in my head. 

Who I am in Christ, has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with Him!

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Jesus became sin, that we might be made, not become, not transition slowly. We have been made the righteousness of God in Christ.

We are in Christ, we are complete in Him. He is our life. He is our new identity, our new self, if you will.

This revelation, I have written about, posted about, talked about for a long time, and it amazes me that yet still this new knowledge takes so much time to become full realized within me.

My standing as a righteous person has nothing to do with me. Our righteousness is a gift, a perfect standing, a new identity which does not go away.

But the struggles continued, and the question would come up: "Why do I still sin (verb)? Why are there still bad habits in my experience?"

Paul Ellis gave the perfect answer: "We are learning to walk in our new identities. It's no longer about our efforts, but His effort." 

It's such a temptation in our experience, in our walk on this earth, to think that we need to "do something more". That temptation has gotten in my way so many times. When I would have negative thoughts, feelings, emotions, recriminations. When I would remember bad people doing bad things to me, since memories will come and go in that fashion, I would get set off kilter, if you will, lose my balance, feel compelled to do something to get back to the stable station which I had enjoyed before.

But you cannot "go back" to what you already ARE. That confusion creates more pain. There is nothing more that needs to be done, in order to be righteous, or more precisely, to be made the righteousess of God.

Over the past few days, the sense of a golden crown around my head has become more apparent. I know that I am using a metaphor, but honestly, this is completely in line with what I was studying in Scripture yesterday. It started with this verse:

"She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee." (Proverbs 4:9)

"She" refers to Wisdom, but we see more importantly a pre-incarnate type of Jesus, who is our Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:30)

That word "ornament", or wreath comes from the word "to join", from which the name Levi is derived. Levi was the priestly tribe. Here, we see an excellent type for our royal priestly status through Christ Jesus. Amen!

There is no need to go back and forth in one's mind to be safe and settled about who we are in Christ. For too long, far too long, I was convinced that my identity was tied up in my thoughts, my feelings. What madness, I know, but that is what I had believed.

Today, by the grace of God, I am what I am (1 Corinthians 15:10)

I am a king and a priest, after the order of Melchizedek, just like Jesus, because:

"As He is, so are we in this world!"