A TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS IN HEAVEN

"One day, as I was passing into the field, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul: ‘Thy righteousness is in heaven.’ And I thought that I could see Jesus Christ at God’s right hand. Yes, there indeed was my righteousness, so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say about me that I did not have righteousness, for it was standing there before Him. I also saw that it was not my good feelings that made my righteousness better, and that my bad feelings did not make my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, ‘the same yesterday, and today, and forever,’ Hebrews 13:8.


Now, indeed, the chains fell off my legs, and I was loosened from my afflictions and irons. My temptations also fled away so that from that time forward those dreadful Scriptures terrified me no more. Now I went home rejoicing because of the grace and love of God, and went to my Bible to look up where the verse was found that said, ‘Thy righteousness is in heaven.’ But I could not find it. And so my heart began to sink again, until suddenly, there came to my remembrance I Corinthians 1:30, ‘Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.’ From this, I saw that the other sentence was also true."

-preacher John Bunyan (1628 - 1688 A.D.)

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