CAn you receive a gift?

This Gift is the way to destroy self-righteousness. This gift is good news of great joy that will draw all people to their original TRUE goodness.

This Gift starts with forgiveness or being made “right” with God.  The word to describe your forgiveness and your right status in God’s eyes is called justification.  God wants you to be righteous in His sight so that you’ll stop believing the lie of self-righteousness.

Scripture teaches that your justification comes by your receiving the gift of God’s righteousness. His righteousness becomes your righteousness.

God wants to give you His righteousness specifically so that He can restore to you what He planned for you from the beginning. The Creator of everything wants you to be a joyful sharer of His image of selfless love and light on the earth! 

St. Peter said it this way: 

“His divine power has given you everything needed for life and godliness… Thus He has given us, through these things, His precious and very great promises, so that through them you… may become participants of the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:3,4)

St. Athanasius summarized it like this:

“God gave Himself to us through His Spirit so we can become communicants of the divine nature.” 

The Gift of God’s Righteousness is the Gift of God Himself. His Spirit living in you becomes your righteousness and your divine nature. 

This is how God transforms you from a self-righteous fallen human into a truly good person.  He takes you through the transformation process. 

And then as Christ’s “ambassador” you invite others to receive His Gift.  Joyfully sharing the Image of God is your destiny as a Christian, a “little Christ”.  And God simply wants you to receive and celebrate it as a GIFT.

That sounds amazing!