The Glorious Gift of Growing

Posted on by Jennifer Arimborgo

 

“For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” (Rom. 5:17, NIV). 

As I sit and reflect on this Scripture for today, my spirit is abundantly blessed. Holy Spirit whispers to me, “Life is far more powerful than death. Righteousness is far more powerful than sin.”

As this verse expresses, sin and death came into the world and dominated all people through Adam and Eve’s disobedience. However, here’s the amazing takeaway. The effects on us all of Jesus’ obedience are exceedingly more powerful!!

Once upon a time, death ruled us. Then, Jesus obeyed the Father. His obedience overhauled death and its reign. The day we come to belong to Him, life takes over. Life now begins to reign in us. Death is swallowed up in victory. The old has gone, the new has come! 

The Word instructs us, “Overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21). This mandate only makes sense because good is so much more powerful than evil. Life is so much mightier than death. So when we choose God’s way, we win every time. Good trumps evil, again and again. 

Our verse for today also speaks of “the gift of righteousness.” God gives us this gift the moment we surrender our lives to Him. The very second we are born again into His kingdom, He imparts His own righteousness to us. Up until that moment, it’s like we were morally bankrupt. Then, all of a sudden, our spiritual account is completely full of righteousness. Not only do we receive it; we even become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21). It is now our new identity, our new nature.

God’s righteousness is mighty. It is powerful enough to knock down and destroy any pre-existing sin structures in our lives. The resulting freedom is sheer gift. We don’t deserve it; we cannot earn it. It’s not obtained by praying and fasting and reading the Bible enough. God bestows His righteousness on us simply because He loves us. 

Not only does He give us positional righteousness when we become saved; He also gives us the gift of practical righteousness. What I mean is this: all the days of our lives, we will be growing up into the righteousness that is already ours. More and more and more, our lives and speech and behavior and decisions will reflect the loveliness of Jesus, as we are fully surrendered to Him. His righteousness will radiate from us. It will come to be seen even in our eyes, in the way we look at people.

This growth in practical righteousness doesn’t happen on the path of least resistance, however. It’s an expensive kind of growth. It costs us everything. And yet, it’s a gift. Every single day that we grow to be more like Jesus, it’s only because He gifted us with the grace to grow that day. He empowered us with the gift of righteousness. His virtue is at work in us, transforming us into His image as we continually give Him our “yes.”

We can conclude, then, that both right standing with God and right living are gifts of His goodness to us. Let’s receive today’s gift of righteousness from Him and grow in the grace that is ours!

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What does it mean, to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness? What are some of the most important elements of righteous living?

24 thoughts on “The Glorious Gift of Growing”

  1. I love you insight, “good is so much more powerful than evil. Life is so much mightier than death!” It is true, yet it is easy to think, “Life and good are better than death and evil, but it was a close game, and it took going into extra innings to pull out the win. NO! You are so right. Good and Life win by a wide margin because of Jesus, and because of the cross! I will definitely steal this message to use soon Jennifer! Thank you. Have a blessed weekend.

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    1. Smiling big, reading your words. My heart rejoices to know your spirit was blessed by this, my brother! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. Many, many blessings back to you.

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      1. Doing good! On April 18th one of the major bridges that comes into my town was shut down completely for 5 days and I was stuck in town. They got a detour up starting with twice a day, then adding additional times. My normal 30 minute drive then took 1 hour and 45 minutes. They just opened the bridge for one lane, 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening. And then yesterday they started investigating the other bridge that is closer to my house! So yesterday it only took and hour and 15 minutes to get to town. If they find anything wrong with the 2nd bridge, they will be using the county road that goes through my property as a detour! My new normal! So with the time it takes, it is crazy for me to drive to and from town each day, so I spend Mon and Thurs evenings in town and go home for Wed and the weekend. I’ll keep you posted!

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      3. So they did find issues with the second bridge. They have them shored up enough to allow cars only across them, being led by a pilot car, at 10 miles and hour. They allow 25 cars each way, and are only open once in the morning and once in the evening for 2 hours only. But it beats the dirt road detour. But it still takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes one way, so I’m still spending those two nights in town. They say they hope to have them both done by the end of October.

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  6. This reminded me of an experience I had years ago. Feeling particularly discouraged at what I perceived as my lack of spiritual progress, I happened to notice several trees nearby. Among them were a pine and a fruit tree. The pine was tall and slender, the fruit tree much shorter but laden w/ fruit. It struck me that God makes each of unique. Our rate of growth is different b/c our walk w/ Him is different. Yet He loves each of us, the pine and the fruit tree alike.

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