I believe any genuine notion should be built on the concrete truth of the word of God.
In the book of Romans 6 where we read about sin’s power been broken by the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ.At the 19th verse lies a statement worth remembering.
We take it from the verse 18 to 19 in the New Living translation.
“Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living. Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.”
Romans 6:18-19 NLT
I believe even before we demystify this verse,the line between righteousness and holiness have been drawn in the 19th verse.
2 Corinthians 5:21 states that we became righteous because of Christ’s death not by our works.
Let me use these two analogies to explain righteousness and later get back to the verses.
Analogy 1: When a dog gives birth,it gives birth to one of its kind called a puppy which eventually grows up to become a dog.But until it grows,it must learn how to live life from it’s mother.If the puppy disobeys it’s mother, the puppy never looses it’s nature as a dog but will never enjoy the true dog life lessons the mother wants to pass on to it.The puppy is still a dog because it was reproduced in the image of a dog and can never stop being a dog no matter the undoggy acts of its.
Analogy 2:Some times we hear weird news about human beings having sex with animals which I believe no one who is led or controlled by righteousness would do that.Yet they never loose their names or nature as human beings. No matter what any human being does wrong he or she is still a human being because they received that nature during their birth.
Now based on these two analogies,it’s imperative to note that righteousness is the nature of God received during our new birth which has made us saints automatically.1 Corinthians, Colossians 1:12
“But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name.Who owe their birth neither to bloods nor to the will of the flesh [that of physical impulse] nor to the will of man [that of a natural father], but to God. [They are born of God!]” John 1:12-13
We are yet to really demystify holiness and righteousness,we are looking at our new birth with its new nature called righteousness.
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