Today’s New Covenant nugget is from Ephesians 4:22-24 (NLT)
Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit RENEW YOUR THOUGHTS and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly RIGHTEOUS and holy.
The Passion Translation says, “And He has taught you to let go of the lifestyle of the ancient man, the old self-life, which was corrupted by sinful and deceitful desires that spring from delusions. Now it’s time to be made new BY EVERY REVELATION that’s been given to you. And to be transformed as you embrace the glorious Christ-within as your new life and live in union with Him! For God has re-created you all over again IN HIS PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS, and you now belong to Him in the realm of true holiness.”
Righteousness-consciousness is key to receiving and living in all that the Lord has for us in the New Covenant. Sin-consciousness makes people want to hide from God, but righteousness-consciousness makes people want to run to God. As a born-again believer, Jesus has re-created you as a righteous, holy child of the Most High, righteousness-consciousness is the consciousness of who you are in Christ. Sin-consciousness is the consciousness that without Jesus all are sinners. Sin-consciousness has no place in the believers life!
Lets look at Genesis 3:7-8 to discover where and how sin-consciousness entered… “At that moment (after they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Sin-consciousness began in the Garden of Eden. The Lord told Adam and Eve that they could eat of any tree in the garden with the exception of the tree OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. The Lord did not want His children walking around thinking about good deeds vs evil deeds. He wanted His children to have an innocent relationship with Him as well as with each other, focused on their righteousness as His children, His goodness, and the good things in others, as children of the Most-High.
The knowledge of good and evil is not a bad thing if you are God, but as humans it immediately brings out performance focused thinking as well as judgment and condemnation.The Lord wanted to protect us from that, and that is why He commanded Adam and Eve NOT to eat of the tree.
Immediately after Adam and Eve ate of the tree, their eyes were opened, and they became sin-conscious, and went and hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. Sin-consciousness will always lead to a believer going into hiding from the Lord and from those who they think are judging them for their sin. The devil wants us to continually be sin-conscious, feeling condemned and feeling disqualified.
We need to be righteousness-conscious and grace-conscious and conscious of God’s goodness, not sin-conscious…
So many Christians go around focusing on their sins, imperfections and flaws as well as on the sins, imperfections and flaws of others. This unbiblical focus leads them to start trying to fix themselves as well as others around them, the result is division in the church, strife and divorce between husbands and wives, broken families, judgment, rejection, suicide and the like.
One of the things that I had to learn as a pastor and a minister, was not to focus on the sins, imperfections and flaws of those in my congregation. When you focus on the faults of others, the immediate response is either to avoid or to try to fix others. There is only one thing worse than being avoided, and that is someone trying to FIX you! Never try to FIX yourself, your spouse, your children, friends, family, co-workers and followers! This was the immediate response of Adam and Eve when they started sowing fig leaves together. You cannot fix yourself or others, that’s God’s job, and He is very good at it!
What Adam tried to fix with a fig leaf, God fixed with the cross of Calvary. Adam covered the fruit of what he wrongly perceived to be the problem, while the Lord crushed the root of the real problem. Jesus not only destroyed the power of sin and sin-consciousness, He imputed the power of righteousness and righteousness-consciousness by grace, through faith in His finished work on Calvary.
Sin-consciousness leads to slavery and righteousness-consciousness leads to reigning in this life in grace, through Christ. Sin-consciousness leads to condemnation, guilt and fear, but righteousness-consciousness leads to great faith, boldness and courage.
Romans 5:17 says, “For if by the one man’s sin death reigned through the one, much more will those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
Through Adam and Eve’s one act of eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, death REIGNED through sin and sin-consciousness, now, those who receive and abundance of GRACE and the gift of RIGHTEOUSNESS, reign in life in righteousness, and in righteousness-consciousness through Christ!
The Passion Translation says, “Death once held us in its grip, and by the blunder of one man, death reigned as king over humanity. But now, how much more are we held in the grip of grace and continue reigning as kings in life, enjoying our regal freedom through the gift of perfect RIGHTEOUSNESS in the One and only Jesus, the Messiah!”
Romans 5:1 (TPT) says, “Our faith in Jesus transfers God’s righteousness to us and He now declares us flawless in His eyes. This means we can now enjoy true and lasting peace with God, all because of what our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, has done for us.”
With righteousness-consciousness comes an attitude of faith, boldness, courage and strength of leadership. Knowing that God is pleased with us, and that He is one hundred percent for us gives us what we need to reign in this life through Christ.
The mentality that says, “if you do everything right, everything will go right, but if you don’t get everything right, you will fail,” shifts the focus from Jesus, and His strength, to ourselves, and our limitations. Instead, declare by faith, “Jesus has done everything right, now, because of my faith in Jesus, I shall always triumph in Him.”
Philippians 4:8 commands us to put our focus and thoughts on “whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s Word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things and center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart.”
Consider anything that is not in line with Philippians 4:8 “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and DO NOT EAT ANY OF IT! Instead, eat from the TREE OF LIFE [Jesus] and from the BOOK OF LIFE [the Word of God] and reign in this life through grace as the righteousness of God in Christ! We were sinners saved by GRACE, now we are the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST, REIGNING IN GRACE as kings and priests in Jesus, let’s be conscious of that! - Selah
In His amazing love, Nick
