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How can I say I'm righteous when I am sinning everyday?
We, as human beings, sin from the very
moment we're born until we die. As a matter of fact, this is due
to our fundamental minds, which carry sins along with them. So,
the Bible says, "There is none righteous, no, not one"
(Romans 3:10). That is why the apostle Paul confessed in front of
God that "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I
am chief" (1 Timothy 1:15).
"But now the righteousness of
God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and
the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus
Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus"
(Romans 3:21-24).
This "righteousness" of God
means that Jesus was baptized by John Baptist in the Jordan. When
He was baptized, He said to John, "Permit it to be so now,
for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness"
(Matthew 3:15). He bore the sins of the world in the most just and
fair way when He was baptized by John the Baptist, the representative
of all humankind. Thus, John exclaimed "Behold! The Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29) the next
day he baptized Jesus.
Then what does "the sins of the
world" here mean? It means all the sins of all human beings
from Adam and Eve, the first man on the earth, to the last man of
the world. The past was the world, the present is the world, and
the future will be the world, too. Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega,
had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, bearing all the
sins of the world once and for all through baptism in the Jordan
and dying on the Cross. And we have been sanctified. Note that this
is written in the perfect present tense. We have been sanctified
and sinless, from the very moment we believed in God until now and
always will be. For the Lord is Almighty God, He has a bird's eye
view of the beginning and the end of the world. Although it is about
2000 years ago when He was baptized, he could take away all the
sins that human beings commit from the beginning to the end of the
world. Therefore, before He died on the Cross, He said, "It
is finished!" (John 19:30). He took away all the sins of the
world about 2000 years ago and died on the Cross in order to wash
them away.
We still sin even after we're saved
because our flesh is weak. However, Jesus has redeemed us from all
the sins of the past, present and the future by laying all the sins,
even the ones from now, on Him through baptism and being judged
for them on the Cross. This is the complete and righteous salvation
of God.
If Jesus hadn't taken away with Him
the sins that we will commit in the future, not a single human being
could be redeemed from everyday sin, "for the wages of sin
is death" (Romans 6:23). When Jacob and Esau were still in
their mother's womb, God separated them into two nations before
they didn't do anything good or bad, and loved Jacob, but hated
Esau, and said "The older shall serve the younger" (Genesis
25:23).
We human beings are destined to be
sinful for the time being, from the moment we are born until the
moment we die, but God foreknew our sins at first sight, and washed
away all our sins once and for all by His baptism and the Cross
for He loves us. We live in a blessed time. The prophet Isaiah said,
"Speak comport to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare
is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from
the Lord's hand double for all her sins" (Isaiah 40:2). The
time we were slaves to sin has ended through the gospel of Jesus'
baptism and the Cross, therefore anybody who believes in the gospel
could be delivered from his sin. "' This is the covenant that
I will make with them after whose days, says the Lord: I will put
my laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,'
then He adds, ' Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember
no more.' Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer
an offering for sin" (Hebrews 10:16-18).
God doesn't judge us for our daily
sins anymore because He has already washed away all the sins of
mankind on earth and judged them through Jesus.
As a result, we can wait for the Lord
to come and follow His Words, as the righteous without sin, even
though we still sin in our lives.
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