S1P4 – Christ, the conduit of grace AND righteousness

Eph. 1: 6

[So that we might be] to the praise and the commendation of His glorious grace (favor and mercy), which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Through Christ, we gain access to God’s free grace.  If you have been a bible-believing church-going Christian for any length of time, no doubt you’ve heard of this gift.  It is commonly defined as unmerited favor.  The salvation made available to us through Christ is an operation of this grace.  Through the mechanism of justification, Christ stands as the conduit by which God’s grace manifests in us.

The book of Romans also characterizes this act of grace as the revelation of God’s righteousness. “This righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ for all those [Jew or Gentile] who believe [and trust in Him and acknowledge Him as God’s Son]” (Rom. 3:22).  Christ is the conduit of not only the grace that permits salvation, but also the righteousness imputed to use as a result of salvation.  Jesus bore the penalty of our unrighteousness so that we may clothe ourselves in His righteousness and walk in the favor that only He has merited.

We encourage you to declare as truth that which God already has declared over you.  Do not say that you are unrighteous.  If you have been justified through Christ, you are now righteous. His righteousness is not a mere option available to you; it is now part of you.  You wear this mantle not by choice but as a spiritual consequence of your justification.  Your hands are no longer dirty; they are clean.  Your heart is no longer stone; it is flesh.  You are no longer unworthy to stand in the throne room of God; you are worthy to go beyond the veil.  Walk worthy!