How do you know that you have been given the righteousness of Christ?

Romans 8:9b-10 But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. How do you know that you have been given the righteousness of Christ? According to these verses in Rom. 8, you know you have been given the righteousness of Christ if your spirit is alive to God. John confirmed this reality in 1 John 5:12. “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” In some ways, we are a contradiction. Our body is dead because of sin. It cannot produce and bear fruit for God because of the weakness of the flesh. But, if Christ is in you, your spirit is alive to God. This is a repeat of what Paul wrote in 6:11. “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Being alive to God is the work of the Holy Spirit, and only those who belong to God can receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His disciples, John 14:16-17. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” Being alive in the spirit is the same as being resurrected from the dead. You were born dead in your mortal body. You were in the flesh and lived according to the flesh because your spirit was dead to God. You were a prisoner of sin and death—without hope in this world and destined for wrath. Then, according to God’s will, mercy, love, and pleasure, He gave you the Spirit of life in Christ, and you were made alive to God. The gospel tells you that the presence of the Holy Spirit is the proof that God has given you the righteousness of Christ by uniting you with Him in His death and resurrection. Faith rose in your heart as you heard this good news. Just as Paul wrote in 4:25, “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification”, so you were given to Christ because you are a sinner, and He made you alive because of Jesus’ righteousness. God didn’t look down through the corridor of time and see that you would believe in Jesus and on that basis make you alive in Christ. Rather, He put you in Christ according to His eternal plan so He could glorify His name and His Son in you. What mercy and love! You belong to Him! If you have the Spirit of God, then you have been given God’s righteousness. He has sent you into this world with the good news of God’s great mercy and love given freely in His Son, Jesus Christ. That is living to love with Jesus. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com