Hope for the Guilty Heart

How can a person be righteous in God's sight? That is to say, how is it that a person can have such a purity that God looks at them and says, “This person is without any guilt whatsoever.”

If it is possible to attain this kind of standing before God through the law (meaning obeying the law given by God) then Christ died unnecessarily (Galatians 2:21). Further, “no one is justified (ie, made to be righteous) before God by the law” (Galatians 3:11). So then, if following God's own law is insufficient (and certainly by implication establishing our own “law” or requirements is not sufficient either), then how does one become righteous in God's sight?

We are made righteous in God's sight, in spite of our own unrighteousness, through our faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:16). The reason for this is that Jesus died for sinners and took their punishment upon Himself (Galatians 2:20; 3:10-14). The message of the gospel is that anyone who will hear this message in faith (relying on Jesus, not ourselves, for our righteousness) will be made righteous before God, receive the Holy Spirit, and receive the promised blessing given to Abraham (Galatians 3:1-9).

This truly is good news to all who understand the impurity in their hearts.