Righteous

But look at what God says in 1 Corinthians 6:11, ‘And such were some of you; but ye are washed.’ Not only are there some on one side that are not right and have no relationship with God, but there are some people on the other side who do have a relationship to God. There are some people who were unrighteous, but now they are right with God.  Something has changed them.  They have a relationship with God and are termed ‘righteous.’  At one time these people weren’t right with God; they were seen as vile in the eyes of God. But now God sees them in this condition of righteousness. Somehow God cleansed them.

Romans 5:19 says, ‘For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.’ We read in Romans 3:10 that no one is righteous on their own. Yet it says in Romans 5:19 that there are some who are made righteous. Something happens to them. They don’t make themselves righteous. That is not what that verse says.  Notice the words again. It says they were made righteous. Something, some power from outside of them works upon them, to literally pick them up out of the unrighteous side and put them into the righteous side. Something happens to move them from no relationship with God to having a relationship with God.

Note these two things we have seen so far. There are some that are lost. They can’t find their way. They can’t get to Heaven. They don’t know how to get to Heaven. They don’t have a clue on how to find God on their own. But somehow God is able to rescue them, to save them.

There are those who are not right before God. But something happens in some of their lives, and they are picked up out of the column of not right before God and are put over on the side of being right with God. Again, it is something that is done for them. It is not anything they do on their own.