Butterflies, Trash & You!

Do you know you cannot become unrighteous? Once we become righteous through faith in the grace of God, we are like a caterpillar who has turned into a beautiful butterfly. The butterfly has reached the next stage in its life when it becomes a butterfly. It cannot turn back into a caterpillar. It is a butterfly for the rest of its life!

You were once a caterpillar ( a sinner). One day, you went through a born again experience and metamorphosed into a butterfly (righteousness of God). You are not a sinner any more. So you can't go around saying, "I'm a sinner saved by grace." Why? Because you were once a sinner, but no longer! You were once a caterpillar, but no longer.

Once in a while, a butterfly may fly into a rubbish heap, instead of a nice flower in the garden. Is it still a butterfly? Of course! It doesn't transform back into a caterpillar just because it lands on some trash. And it won't remain on the trash for long because it won't like it - it's not the nature of the butterfly to hang around flies!

In the same way, a Christian sometimes does sinful things, but that does not make him a sinner once again because he has already metamorphosed into a new creation. He is just a Christian who has done sinful things. The opposite is also true: If a sinner does good deeds, it does not make him righteous.

We must understand that righteousness is not based on what we do or don't do, but on what Christ has done for us! God gave us His righteousness as a gift (Romans 5:17, Hebrews 10:15-17).

Let me ask you: When you know that you have sinned and you are still right with God because of Jesus Christ, does it make you want to sin more? No, not at all. In fact, you will love God more! Once you awaken to the fact that your are righteous in spite of your failures, you will not want to sin. Paul told the Corinthians, "Awake to righteousness, and do not sin" (1 Corinthians 15:34). When you awake to righteousness, when you recognize how righteous you are in Christ, you will not want to sin.

Jesus said that Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment (John 16:8-10). The sin is unbelief in Jesus Christ. Once you were convicted of sin and believed in Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit no longer needs to convict you of this sin. What He does convict you of is righteousness!

Paul says in Philippians 3:9, "not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection." If we want to walk in the POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION, we must be settled in the knowledge that we are the righteousness of God in Christ, and our righteousness is not based on our performance, but His performance. We cannot be made unrighteous. Thank you Jesus! You are the righteousness of God and we love you!