This post is part of a 40-Day Prayer Journey through the season of Lent. Click here to learn more and read other posts in the series.
“To the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness” (Romans 4:5).
Is righteousness before God given . . . or is it earned?
The world we live in, the devil, and our sinful natures would have us think that righteousness before God must be earned. If we try hard enough to live according to his will for our lives, if we try hard enough to do what God’s Word says, then God will surely credit righteousness to us.
Will all our hard work be perfect? Goodness, no, but at least we’ll have tried—and that has to count for something . . . right?
The world we live in and our sinful natures are liars, dear Christian.
No matter how hard we try to live according to God’s will for our lives, no matter how hard we try to do what God’s Word says, we’ll never be able to do enough. We need to be perfect, and we can’t do that. We’re sinful human beings. We can never live up to the impossibly unattainable standard of God’s holiness. If we try to achieve perfection for ourselves, we won’t reach it. We fall short of God’s glory every single time we try.
God’s Word tells us something far different than what the world, the devil, and our sinful natures would have us believe. God’s Word tells us the truth, which can only be known and believed by faith created in our hearts by God himself.
Righteousness before God is freely given to us through God-given, Spirit-worked faith in Jesus Christ and what he has done for us. God is the one who justifies us and makes us holy. He makes the ungodly godly, washing our sins away in the blood of Jesus, who lived perfectly in our place.
Jesus lived according to God’s will for life. He did what God’s Word said. For us. So God could credit Jesus’ righteousness to us.
Let’s go back to the question that started this post: Is righteousness before God given . . . or is it earned?
Dear Christian, righteousness before God is earned—but not by us. It was earned by our Savior Jesus, and he has given us his righteousness freely out of his great love for us. Through faith in Christ alone, we stand justified before our heavenly Father.
Not by our works or anything we’ve done to deserve it, but all because of Jesus and what he has done for us.
Thank you, Jesus!
Today as you pray, ask that God would continue to create and strengthen faith in the hearts of his people through his means of grace to trust his gift of righteousness through Christ alone.
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Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.
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