Can God's Gift of Righteousness Be Lost?

Someone recently asked, "When we accept righteousness, does that mean we live righteous, or do we have to accept it over and over again when we slip in sin?"

Great question.  We must think the way God asks us to think about this.  We must accept as true what He says to be true.

First, when God declares us "righteous" in Christ when we believe, we "have become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).  This simply means that all our sin's penalty and guilt has been paid for, the debt is paid, the issue of our eternal righteousness is settled.  Simply put, we have a RIGHTEOUS STANDING in Christ, by the grace of God (cf. Romans 5:1).

Second, even though we are declared righteous, we still live our lives in a body and with a mind that can sin and does sin.  Hear this clearly - declared righteous people, in Christ, still sin!   John reminds us, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1).  But our new life in Christ means that we are on a new path to overcoming the practice of sin in our lives, and having those practices replaced with "righteous" living.  In other words, God's talk about us (RIGHTEOUS) starts to become our walk in life day by day.

So, the God's word makes these two realities clear.  We are declared RIGHTEOUS, and we are growing in day-by-day RIGHT LIVING.

When we slip up in sin, here is what our heavenly Father asks - If we confess our sins (to Him), He is always faithful and righteous to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).  Because Christ's death has covered our sins, even the ones we will commit, God is always ready to forgive our slip ups.

In other words, by faith in Christ, we belong to Christ (Romans 1:6-7).  We are saints, who are growing in Christlikeness, growing in our righteousness.  Sin happens, but God's grace covers our sin and motivates us to make God's talk about us our walk before Him.