A Righteousness Not Our Own, Philippians 3:9
�...not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.�
It is impossible for man to be righteous in and of his own efforts. The Bible teaches that the heart is deceitfully wicked. So wicked in fact are our hearts that we can�t even know the depths of our own sinfulness and depravity! (Jeremiah 17:9) It says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags in His sight (Isaiah 64:6).
The Bible also teaches that the consequence of our sinfulness is eternal death and separation from God (Romans 6:23). But God so loved mankind He made a way for us to be forgiven of our sins-- Jesus, who is God in the flesh, came and died for our sins, taking the full punishment for our actions and taking upon Himself the wrath of our righteous and holy God. When we believe in and put our trust in Jesus� atoning sacrifice, making Him our Lord and Savior, by faith we receive forgiveness for sins and eternal life.
Because it is Jesus who did all the work, what have we to boast of ourselves? What claim to righteousness do we have? In and of ourselves, we are sinfully wicked and have no righteousness. We have been saved by God�s grace, and not of works, lest any man should boast in his own accomplishments (Ephesians 2:8-9).
However, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, God views us as clean, pure, and righteous, because Jesus� righteousness has been imputed to us. True, we have no righteousness of our own, but we have been clothed in the righteousness of the Son of God, Jesus Christ Himself. There is nothing we can do to become more holy, more pure, because Jesus was absolutely holy and absolutely pure, there was no blemish or spot in Him. This is the righteousness that has been imparted to us by faith.
When Christians are stagnant in the sharing of their faith, when they are reluctant to spread the gospel, it very well may be because they have forgotten what the gospel is-- Good news! It is not a hard teaching that we have to force ourselves to follow; it is not rules and regulations and church attendance. It is the good news that our sin is forgiven and we are clean and pure, righteous and sinless in God�s eyes!
I myself have a hard time remembering that the gospel is just that-- good news. It�s not that I think it�s bad news or hard news, it�s just that I so often take for granted what Christ has done. Oh sure, I know that He died for my sins, and I know that the world needs Him. I pray and pray for the people I care about to know Him and trust in Him like I do-- But when it comes to sharing the gospel, I chicken out.
In my mind I rationalize why I don�t say anything directly relating to Jesus, from �it�s not the right time,� or, �I�m at work and I can�t be a bad witness by not doing my work,� to, �They probably will think I�m silly and reject the message anyway�. But this isn�t what Jesus said.
Jesus said that the harvest is plenty but the workers are few. How true that is! Well, maybe there are many "workers"... But they are all unwilling to work! We just sit around in denial that there is a harvest! We need to stop believing the foolish lies that Satan plants in our minds, and start obeying the word of God!
When we believe in our hearts and consciously remind ourselves that we are not righteous because of our own deeds (our church attendance, Bible studies, prayer lives, etc.), and remember that our righteousness is only that of Christ imparted to us by faith in Him, we will naturally be overjoyed with what Jesus has done for us and want to share it with everyone we know! It�s only when we forget this that we start to slow down and become stagnant in our witnessing.