“Go ye therefore and teach all nations
that God is mad at them.”

That’s not what Jesus said in the Great
Commission. But all too often, that is the
message traditional religion has preached.

People (believers and unbelievers alike)
have been told how unworthy they are.
They’ve been told what sorry creatures
they are. They’ve been told they don’t
act right or talk right or pray right.

Sound familiar? If so, I have some good
news for you today: God is not mad at you.
In fact, He’s not mad at anybody!

The Bible says He [God] “was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Every person ever born on this earth has already
been guaranteed by God, the right to stand
before Him without any sense of guilt or shame.

Every person, no matter how covered in sin he
may be, qualifies to receive God’s righteousness.
Not everyone takes advantage of it, but everyone
has the opportunity.

Statements like that shock religious people.
Do you know why? Because, as Romans 10:3
says, “They being ignorant of God’s righteousness,
and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God.”

That’s what religion always does. It tries
to establish its own righteousness, its own
rules, its own right-standing with God.
Religion says, if you act right, talk right,
dress right and look right, then God will
give you favor.

But God isn’t religious. He says, I don’t
want you to establish your own righteousness.
I want to give you Mine. But before you can
receive it, you have to quit trying to establish
your own.

You can’t earn the righteousness of God.
There’s nothing you can do to deserve it. It’s
God’s gift. All you can do is receive it.

When I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord,
God declared me righteous. I didn’t look very
righteous. I called on liquor stores back then.
Alcohol was my business. I sold it and I
drank it. But the day I submitted to Jesus,
my life changed.

I went back to work the next Monday
morning in those same liquor stores. I didn’t
know a thing about the Bible. I only knew
I was different. Soon, I began to tell people
that I had two kinds of spirits, alcoholic
spirits and the Holy Spirit. “Which one do
you want to hear about first?” I’d ask.

I found that many of them were interested
in Jesus. They weren’t interested in religion,
but they were interested in knowing that God
was no longer “imputing their trespasses” to
them. They were interested in knowing that
He had settled the account of the whole
world’s sins. That was good news!

The sad thing is many believers—people
who have already been made righteous in
Jesus—don’t fully grasp that news. They
don’t realize God isn’t mad at them. They
don’t realize they can go boldly before the
throne of God without shame—dressed in
the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

That’s because they’ve been taught to focus
more on how they’ve messed up than on what
Jesus has done for them. They’re more sin-conscious
than they are righteousness-conscious.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries