Who is Righteous?
James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Lots of saved people don’t see themselves as righteous. They look for righteous people to pray for them. But if you are saved, you are righteous (in the right standing of God). Doesn’t matter how we feel. We all think that only guys like our pastor or old testament prophets like Elias could get their prayers answered, based on their righteousness, but not so. God probably answered one of your prayers today. No matter how trivial. Did you thank Him when that taxi or parking spot showed up right away? Or when your flight landed safely and on time?
If you are saved you’re righteous.
JAMES 5:17-18 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
“Yes, but that’s Elijah praying. He’s a prophet, a great man of God, completely righteous” we could say. But he was a man, “subject to like passions” just like we are. Imperfect! Not a prophet who prayed but a man who prayed. God won’t hear a prophet or pastor pray any more quickly than He will hear any other saved believer pray.
It’s not the man who prays that gets the job done but the prayer itself. The Bible says, “. . . The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). That effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man is what gets the job done.
You can say “Well, if I was righteous I could pray that way and get results.” But if you are saved, you are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). God made you righteous. You can’t make yourself righteous. That was one of the most difficult aspects of the Bible for me to understand in studying it. I saw people who didn’t live nearly as consecrated as others did, and yet, they could do twice as much praying and get twice as many answers as the others did. They would get the job done! But the truth is that they weren’t the ones who were getting the job done. It was the Lord who was getting the job done in response to the prayers and their faith.
“Why is that?” I would ask. The Lord finally showed me that you do not get your prayers answered on the basis of how good you have been. You get answers to prayer based on your persistent faith in God’s Word and on who you are in Christ. You are made righteous in Christ Jesus. Righteousness for the Christian is a present-tense reality today.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
One definition of “righteousness” is right standing with God. Jesus became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus is our righteousness. We have the same righteousness, or right standing with God, that Elias or any other prophet had. Elias had human flaws yet his prayer worked; and so can yours.
Romans 10:9-10 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
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Note; Satan loves to use the phrase “what if?” He says stuff like “what if you really are not a child of God? Then you are not righteous and your prayer won’t work!” If the devil comes along and says that you are not saved (righteous), it is a pretty sure sign that you ARE saved. I know plenty of people who, without a doubt, are sure they are going to heaven but in fact ARE NOT saved.
If Satan (the accuser of the brethren, and the author of confusion) is wasting his time on you, I am pretty sure that you are righteous and that your fervent and effective prayers will work. That terrifies him, a Christian that understands the power of his own prayers.
PRAY FOR US!!! FOR OUR FINANCES, OUR CHILDREN, AND OUR HEALTH (PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY, SPIRITUALLY AND EMOTIONALLY)