Creflo Dollar - The Magnificent Gift of Righteousness - Part 1
If you have your Bibles this morning, go with me to the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 5, in verse 21. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, in verse 21. And I wanna take a few minutes, and I wanna talk about this magnificent gift of righteousness. This magnificent gift of righteousness. One of the things I want us to understand is I try to, as much as possible, talk about the righteousness of God because it is one of those things that people still struggle with, as far as receiving it and walking in it and understanding it.
2 Corinthians chapter 5, in verse 21. He says, «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.» Some people say that you are righteous until you fail or until you fall and that you can sin away this gift, that you can sin away or somehow get rid of this marvelous gift of righteousness that has been given to us. I want you to think about something. When we were all sinners, we did righteous deeds, righteous things. We did. As a sinner, before I got born again, I did some goody-goody deeds, man. And we all did some pretty good deeds, and we were not even born again. We did good deeds, and we were still spiritually dead. But I was still a sinner. I was still spiritually dead. Doing the good deeds did not eradicate my spiritual deadness.
And so we thought, «Well, I won’t get born again, but I’ll go to church at least twice a month.» «Well, I won’t get born again, but, you know, I’ll feed the poor.» And you’re still spiritually dead. And the thing I want you to think about is that while we were still sinners, I can’t righteous deed away my sinhood. In other words, my righteous deeds would not get rid of my status as a sinner. And we all know this. And somehow, when you begin to relate that to the gift of righteousness, we throw all of that out of the building, the fact that we have been made righteous. And when we got born again and when we were made righteous, how many of you know you still sinned?
Now, that’s the first time I did that. With boldness, I said, «You know you still sinned.» You know, I try to ease it in there and say, «You know when you were righteous, you know you still wasn’t perfect, or you still made some mistakes.» I try to say it in other ways, and I’m asking the Lord to work with me so I can be straight down the line. But since you’ve been born again, you still sin, maybe not as bad as before, because now that you’re saved and God’s been working on you, and certain things you don’t do anymore, but you still operated in some level of sin. Somebody says, «Well, I can’t receive that.»
Well, let me ask you a question: are you perfect now? You’re perfect in Christ Jesus, but you’re not flawless as far as your humanity is concerned 'cause you still act a little crazy every now and then, you still treat people a little bad every now and then, you’re still rude to the waitress that comes. You still got some issues in your life, but those issues will not eradicate the gift of righteousness. See, look at y’all. You’re kind of scared right now because somehow religion has convinced you that now that you’re born again, you’re flawless, and you know that ain’t true. You know the day you got born again, you might have cussed two or three people out that day. You try to forget that day, but you know that’s not true.
And then you hear the thing that says, you know, «You’re born again,» as if to say, «You’re born again. You’re supposed to be flawless.» It doesn’t work like that. You got born again, and you got on a journey. And on that journey, you started eradicating some bad behaviors. You start getting rid of some lust. You start getting rid of some bad attitudes. And today on your journey, you’re not what you used to be, you’re not what you want to be, but the journey continues, and you did not lose the gift of righteousness. Let me stay on that a little bit, 'cause some of y’all still, «Well, I just don’t know.» But all you gotta do is ask yourself, «Am I flawless?»
And the answer to that is no, you are not flawless. For you to put sin in categories: big sin, little sin, and then you look at yourself, no sin. Bobby doesn’t talk about big sin, little sin. Sin is sin. But somehow, religion says to us that once you got born again, there are no more flaws. Now that you’re born again, you’re better than what you used to be. Now that you’re born again, there’s just certain things you’re not interested in doing anymore because the Holy Spirit’s been working on the inside of you.
Now that you’re born again, there’s certain things you refrain from doing. You’re like, «No, I don’t wanna do that no more because I’m not that same person. No, I don’t want to say that no more. I’m not that same person. No, I don’t wanna hear that anymore. I’m not that same person.» Yeah, now that you’re born again, you’re like, «Wait a minute, I’m gonna put some new boundaries up. There’s a new season in my life, and that new season causes me to, I mean, I gotta put some new boundaries up. There’s certain things I don’t want to do no more. There’s certain places I don’t wanna go no more. There’s certain», and with all of your effort to try to build those boundaries up to honor God as a Christian that’s born again, somehow you still, maybe months go by or years go by, but on this journey, you still may fall.
But does that mean you lost the magnificent gift of righteousness? You fail righteous, you got up righteous, you’re gonna die righteous, you’re going to heaven righteous, because this righteousness is not based on you. You are righteous in him. Well, why are we righteous in God’s eye? Why are we righteous in God’s eye? Is it because we do right? Why are we righteous in God’s eye? That’s just as bad as the other I just explained. Do we think we’re righteous because we do right? No, we’re not righteous in God’s eye because we do right.
So that’s gonna take care of all of the plans you’re making. «Well, you know what? In order for me to be the righteousness of God, I gotta do right.» No, the doing right will come first, will come afterwards, but what you gotta get a hold of first is that «I am not righteous because I do right. I am righteous because of Jesus.» Take Jesus out the situation, and you can do right all day long, but you’re just doing right spiritually dead. But now that you’re born again, you are doing right in Jesus. Your righteousness is because of Jesus. I am righteous because of Jesus. I didn’t become righteous. He made me righteous. The day I got born again, I have been made the righteousness of God.
And so you keep focusing more on doing right instead of being who he says you are. And the day you believe you’re righteous, then you’re gonna start doing right because your new identity will just not continue to put up with certain things you do. But you keep allowing your behavior to determine who you are, and you are who Jesus says you are, and Jesus says, «Now that you’re born again, you are the righteousness of God.» And the day you believe that, you gonna start doing right. Look at 2 Corinthians 5:21, our text. He says, «For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin.» Jesus was made to be sin in our place.
Now, we know lots of sin. He knew no sin, and he was made to be sin for us, and Jesus knew no sin. Why would he do that? That we might be, watch this: just like he was made a sinner or made sin and had never sinned, we were made righteous without ever doing right. Wow. He was made sin and never sinned, so we could be made righteous without knowing how to walk in that kind of righteousness. The issue’s got to be greater than our doctrine. The issue has got to be about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, not fussing about what that person said, and «I agree with this,» and «I agree with that.»
The real issue, at the end of the day, when you finish fussing and fighting and arguing, the real issue is, do you have a personal relationship with Jesus? That’s the real issue, 'cause what good does it do for you to be expert theologians and rightly dividing the Word with perfection and you don’t know Jesus for yourself? You don’t know Jesus. You don’t walk in love. You got a hard time forgiving everybody for all that kind of stuff. You have no relationship with Jesus. This whole deal is based on our relationship with Jesus. We’re here celebrating this morning 'cause we have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Now, you might not be exactly what you wanna be, but keep that relationship with Jesus. Hang on with that relationship with Jesus. I mean, as crazy as you might be sometimes, bring the Lord up in that conversation. «Lord, I know I don’t deserve it, but I need you to help me right now.» You have a relationship with Jesus. Now, surely a lot of times people immediately think, «Oh, he’s just giving people a license to sin. Oh, he’s just making sin not to be this little, small matter.» No, there are consequences for you sinning. You wanna go and cheat on your wife, you get back home that night, and she got a shotgun 'cause she found out about it?
There are consequences for sinning. Ain’t nobody trying to make light of sin. I’m just trying to make Jesus greater than your sin. I’m trying to make righteousness greater than your sin. And besides, I’m tired of arguing and debating with people over theology. «Well, you know, I got a problem with what you said about 2 Corinthians.» Okay, dude. That is your prerogative. You have a right to do that. Now, let me ask you something: do you have a relationship with Jesus? «I know him.» How well do you know him? Do you have a relationship with Jesus? 'Cause at the end of the day, your expert theology without an intimate relationship with Jesus, are you following what I’m saying?
You need to know you know him. No, you don’t need to think you know him. You need to know you know him. I mean, it’s crazy. You got to pray before you go to the grocery store 'cause some demon-possessed person might be in the cereal isle with a gun mad at somebody, and all you wanted was some butter. You got to know you know Jesus. You in your car, and you honestly pulled out. You didn’t see the other car. You didn’t do none on purpose, but they upset. They mad. They mad at they self. They treat themselves bad, and all of a sudden, they wanna take all their issues for the week out on you. You better know that you know Jesus. And we are here celebrating Jesus, who showed up as a gift to give gifts unto men, and he gave us this magnificent gift of righteousness.
Now look at Romans chapter 4, verse 6 through 8. Whew, you talking about, whew, there’s not even a word for what we getting ready to read. I mean, Jesus became sin, which means they treated Jesus like the world’s worst sinner. Jesus was treated as the world’s worst sinner, went to hell for us, who had never sinned, so that heaven can treat us like the best righteousness ever. And somebody said, «Well, I don’t believe in Jesus.» There’s gonna be a lot of antichrist attitudes that arrives up like you ain’t never seen before. They’re gonna treat Jesus like he stole something, and you’re gonna have to know in whom you believe in. Will you be quickly talked out of Jesus?
Not if you have a relationship with him. 'Cause when you have a relationship with him, you will have a flashback at a time where you were deep in a ditch, and you know nobody could have got you out that ditch but Jesus. And I’m telling you, you need to know that you know him. David is reflecting on this New Covenant that was to come, and in verse 6, he says, «Even as David also described the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.»
Now, look at this now. David is describing what this must look like. «The blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth.» That word impute, it means to credit or to charge to your account. To credit something to your account or to charge something to your account. And the scripture says, «Unto whom God imputeth,» or charges or credits, «righteousness to those of you who are born again without any works to qualify the righteousness.» He’s going to credit righteousness to your account just 'cause you said, «I believe.» Just 'cause you made him the Lord of your life.
The day you made Jesus the Lord of your life, heaven said, «You’re righteous.» Before you could do any goody-goody thing, heaven said, «You’re righteous.» You know, that’s hard for church people to believe right now, 'cause we’ve been trained in religion. We’ve been trained. You’ve got to sweat like a sinner in order to be right with God. «I don’t know if I’m okay with God, so I gotta do one, two, three, four, five things in order to do that.» He says, «But God will impute,» or charge or credit to your account, «righteousness without works.» Look at the next verse: «Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,» your iniquities are forgiven right now, «and whose sin,» from David’s eyes, «are covered.»
Our sins are not covered, ladies and gentlemen. Our sins have been completely wiped away. Mm, you don’t understand. The blood of animal sacrifices covered sin back in the day. But the blood of Jesus doesn’t cover sin. It kicks sin out of its socket. Y’all don’t understand what I’m saying. See, they had to go in with different animal sacrifices and all offer the blood of the animal sacrifices just so their sins could be covered one year. It would only be covered one year. And they have to return every year because they could never get rid of sin.
So they could just cover it for a year. Imagine how long it must have been if they just left the sacrifice and they just got their sins covered, and they had an argument on the way home. Got dog it, they gotta hold that for the next 12 months. But you and I, who are born again, we are not under the blood of animals. We are under the blood of Jesus, and the blood of Jesus did not cover your sin. The blood of Jesus kicked your sin clean out of socket, praise God. «Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.»
Verse 8, «Blessed,» now, this is heavy, «is the man», oh, boy. Here we go. «Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not.» He will not charge, gosh almighty, sin to the account of the righteous. Yeah, y’all can’t handle that. You ain’t ready. You’re still religious. you’re still struggling trying to figure out in your mind, «Well, how can that be?» See, you’re gonna have to receive this. This is something you’ve got to receive. You ain’t gonna get no better until you receive what he’s already giving you, and that’s why I call it the magnificent gift of righteousness. Who does this? «Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute,» or charge, «sin to your account.»
Now, to some, they’ll say, «Well, shoot, since he ain’t gonna charge it to my account, I might as well go out there and sin.» But remember: there are consequences for sin. See, some folks, they try to look for a loophole and live in wicked. But when you got the Spirit of God living on the inside of you convincing you that you are the righteousness of God, you want to release God’s program. You don’t want to release death. You wanna release life. That’s how you can tell if you’re really saved. 'Cause if you’re really saved, it ain’t gonna taste as good as it used to taste before you got saved. It ain’t gonna look as good as it used to look before you got saved. You’re not gonna be looking and see all the hotels you can get, you know, like you did before you got saved. You’re not interested no more.
Something has happened on the inside of you. God has been working on your desire. He’s been changing your want to, and you don’t want to do what you used to want to do. Now you’re only interested in doing what he wants you to do. You want to please God. So this is not a loophole to sin some more. This is the very essence of God’s love for us, who says, «Now that you are saved, I’m not gonna charge to your account», whew, boy. Y’all all right? It’s still gonna be a merry, merry Christmas? Gonna be a merry Christmas?