His Righteousness.......

"For many Christians, the teaching about righteous "equality" is hard to receive. Yet, it is the "core" truth that makes any fellowship with God possible. Because of the nature of Biblical righteousness, fellowship with God can only occur on a foundation of equality. He does not fellowship with anyone who approaches Him with a righteousness less than His own. And, NO ONE possesses a righteousness greater than His. Those two facts greatly limit the choices. Righteous equality is the only way a mere human can "boldly" approach God's presence to obtain help as we are commanded in Hebrews 4:16. If you don't approach God with His righteousness--but approach Him with yours--you don't get heard. It doesn't matter how beautiful the prayer is prayed or how sincere the intentions are. This is the primary reason for most unanswered prayer. Many religious-minded Christians approach God "hunkered down" wondering if some sin in their past will cause God to reject their request--or worse, wondering if a "sinner" like themselves can dare expect an answer from a Holy God. It's not necessarily the request God is rejecting--it's the righteousness "attitude" of the requestor. Religion calls the sin consciousness attitude "humility". God rejects it as unbelief and disobedience to His Word. It is approaching God with a sinner's unrighteousness instead of God's own righteousness. A sinner's unrighteousness ALWAYS gets rejected.

Critics reject the idea of righteous equality and attempt to equate this belief with the error of Gnosticism--and they can produce very convincing arguments. Gnosticism has a teaching that man is equal to God. Yet, the Gnostics maintain that man is equal to God in his original fallen state (a heresy)--and this belief changes the entire arguement. The Bible teaches that man can NEVER be equal to God in his original sinful state UNTIL he places faith in Jesus Christ and is spiritually reborn (Hence the word "born again"). Through the process of the rebirth, the old man is crucified with Christ. " who enjoys equality. There's nothing "Gnostic" about it at all."
The new man (the "reborn" man) lives "in Christ" and receives God's righteousness. It's the "new man

http://www.rockofoffence.com/righteous.html