I recently told you righteousness is God’s RIGHT SYSTEM. The real definition of righteousness is right-standing with God; the ability to stand before Him without guilt or inferiority as if you had never sinned. What’s interesting about this definition is, if righteousness means to stand before God without guilt, it’s easy to see why the devil wants to feed us condemnation. His goal is to cause us to waver in our relationship with God.
But let’s talk about inferiority.
It means to feel less important, less valuable, or unworthy. This is another trap (another mean trick). If Satan can keep us focused on our old nature (our past), he can mess with our new identity in Christ.
One story in the Bible that may help us all is found in Numbers, Chapter 13. God asked Moses to “Send men to spy out the land I am giving to the children of Israel…” (Numbers 13:2). And when they came back with their report, they said, “There we saw the giants and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight and so we were in their sight” (verse 33).
God explicitly said He wanted them to check out he land He WAS giving them. But sadly, how they viewed themselves (their identity) overrode what God had said and promised them.
This is a lesson for us because God’s Word gives us principles and truths to live by. The example in this account is that 10 out of 12 people will struggle with believing God because they doubt themselves. That’s 80% — this means over half of all humans wrestle with identity issues.
But notice how they said they were like “grasshoppers in their own sight” — not God’s. God didn’t view them that way. They were inferior in their own minds. And that’s what Paul explained in his letter to the Colossians. He said, “And you, who once were alienated and enemies IN YOUR MIND (not God’s)… yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach IN HIS SIGHT (not necessarily yours)” (Colossians 1:21-22).
Do you see the problem?
We are prone to alienate ourselves in our own mind by believing the lies of the enemy. The word “reproach” in that passage means to find fault with. God says that through Jesus we’ve been made holy, blameless, and ABOVE reproach. In other words, we’ve been made righteous.
Years ago, I heard a story about a young boy who had caught several grasshoppers and put them in a jar with a few holes in the lid for air. The grasshoppers went crazy jumping around constantly hitting the lid and falling back down. The boy gave them grass and food but the grasshoppers still jumped constantly. Until one day, he noticed they settled down in their new home. He watched them grow content in their jar. Out of curiosity, he slowly took the lid off ready to catch a stray grasshopper, but none of them tried to jump out.
Why?
Because in the process of time, they had programmed themselves to believe their fate was sealed. Even though the lid had been removed, they “believed” there was still a lid. It’s true for us too— whatever belief system we put in our heart is what will come out. It’s sad, but little by little, we adjust our life to fit the lies (we become grasshoppers in our own sight).
Cricket Mentalities
When we no longer believe there’s hope, we stop trying to find any.
Through Jesus, God removed the lid by forgiving our sins. But Satan wants to keep us trapped — even if it’s just in our own mind. And this is why my early Christian life was a vicious cycle of wrong meditation and pitiful prayer. I let my past sins compound with my present shortcomings to create my identity (low self-worth).
The scale was unbalanced: I had a lopsided understanding— I had full knowledge of sin but only a limited knowledge of my identity in Christ. But I wasn’t alone in my lack of understanding. Doug Jones is an instructor at Rhema Bible Training College where my husband and children attended. He said, “After all my years of teaching at Rhema, I’m still surprised that people have to come to bible school to learn about righteousness. This understanding should be in all our churches.”
I have to agree.
Thankfully, God’s desire is for every person to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth (1 Timothy 2:4). He doesn’t just want us to be saved; He wants us to walk, live, and flourish in His truth— in His righteousness.
