Now I want to talk about a whole other aspect of God's plan for the single saint, and, in this particular area, I'm going to make an assumption that you want to be married eventually. So if you're planning on getting married someday, this is for you.

God's plan for you is that you be properly prepared before you ever walk down the aisle and say, "I do." You need to be prepared by Him in order to be a godly husband or wife. So the first thing God wants you to do as a single saint is make sure that you know and understand who you are.

Putting First Things First
You see, when you're dating, you're looking for someone as a possible mate—someone whom you may spend the rest of your life with—and you're examining everything that person does, trying to find out who he or she really is.

But you don't have any business trying to find out who somebody else is if you don't know who you are first.

Now we all know that you don't enter into anything without being prepared—at least not if you plan to succeed. And it is no different with God. He wants you to enter into marriage with your eyes wide open.

He wants you to know exactly what you're getting into; including what your role is in the marriage and what His expectations are for your marriage. Therefore, He is going to let you know all of those things.

But God has some definite expectations of your knowing who you are as a single believer first. So that's where we're going to begin. Look at Second Corinthians chapter 5.

Therefore if any person is [engrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!
(2 Cor. 5:17 AMP)

This verse says that when you got saved, you became a new creature. The Greek translation says that you are "a new creature of being which never existed before."

This is talking about who you are. If someone were to approach you and say, "Well, I knew you before you got saved, and you were doing this, that, and the other thing," you could say, "Who? What person are you talking about? I'm a new creature. All that other stuff is passed away. I'm completely new."

Righteousness Is Your Position As a Believer
You see, old things have passed away, and all things are become new. Or as The Amplified Bible says, "The fresh and new has come!"

The Apostle Paul had a revelation of this truth, because in Second Corinthians 7:2 he writes, "Receive us; we have wronged no man...." Well, how could he say that?

Wasn't he the same man who looked on as Stephen was being stoned (Acts 7:58)? Wasn't he the same man who was going to Damascus for the purpose of throwing all the saints in jail (Acts 9:1-2)? Wasn't he the same man of whom all the Christians were afraid (Acts 9:26)?

Yet Paul said, "I have wronged no man." Why? Because he understood this concept: Once he became saved, he became a new creature. The old things passed away. They're forgotten. So he's not the same man. That was someone else who did all those other things.

Then, too, Paul understood that Christ died for Him. Jesus, the Anointed One, died so that Paul could be made the righteousness of God.

For he [God] hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
(2 Cor. 5:21)

You are the righteousness of God in Christ. Righteousness is right standing with God. It is the ability to stand in the Presence of God as though sin never existed; to stand in His Presence without guilt, condemnation, or inferiority; to stand in His Presence knowing that everything is now "cool" with Him!

That's what right standing with God is!

Well, Jesus made you the righteousness of God in Him. He put you in a position where you can stand in God's Presence. That's why you can boldly go unto the throne of grace—because He's made you righteous (Heb. 4:16).

That's who you are: the righteousness of God.

When Jesus made you righteous, He gave you the gift of righteousness. You can't "grow" in righteousness. It's a gift. Therefore, as a Christian, you will never be in a better position with God than you are now.

If you were eighty years old, had served God faithfully, and God had blessed you in return, your position with Him will still not have changed. Why? Because you can't get in any better position than the one you're in right now. You are completely in right standing with God.

Now when you decided to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, something else happened. He also gave you the power to be a son of God.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
(John 1:12)

This is all talking about who you are in Christ. You're a new creature. You're in a position of being righteous. And you can stand before God knowing that you are a son or daughter of God.

It doesn't matter what anyone tells you, how you feel, what accomplishments you've made, or even if you've failed in every area of your life, these things are still true. They cannot be changed, and no one can take them away from you.

This is who you really are.

Source: God's Plan For The Single Saint by Keith A. Butler, II
Excerpt permission granted by Word Of Faith Publishing