“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
Hangovers! We usually associated them with drunkards! The point we miss in doing so is the fact that there are many things besides alcohol that can leave you with a hangover. Religious tradition is one of them; and many of us suffer the effects of its hangover.
Religious tradition has taught us that the reason Jesus died on the cross is so that we could make it to heaven through faith in Him. Granted, there is some truth to that. The problem is that it is incomplete.
According to the Bible, Jesus died on the cross so we could be made the righteousness of God through faith in Him. Going to heaven is only one of the benefits that being the righteousness of God grants us. The idea that going to heaven is the sole goal of Christianity is a religious hangover that we need to sober up from.
We need to know that Christianity is not a religion as the world calls it; it is a relationship. God is not in the business of converting people to religion; He is in the business of offering them a living and growing relationship with Himself.
All living relationships have one thing in common – they have a shared identity. Take a child for example. The reason a child has a biological relationship with his parents is because they have a shared blood make up (DNA). That identity can also take the form of a covenant – a solemn oath – as is the case in a marriage between a husband and wife or an adopted child and his parent(s).
In the case of God, His righteousness is the shared identify through which we enter into relationship with Him. Man lost his right standing with God (the righteousness of God) when he disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. His relationship with God was consequently broken.
It follows that the rise of man is a story about his restoration to the righteousness of God and all that goes with it, both in this life and in the life to come – freedom, liberty, dignity, victory, health, wealth, heaven and more. In other words, the righteousness of God is the foundation for man to walk in the five-fold blessing given to him in Genesis 1:28: be fruitful; multiply; replenish the earth (co-create with God); subdue the earth; and have dominion (be in-charge).
