When we are born again, we are born righteous. We are made righteous and we work toward holiness. Being righteous gives us the right to stand before God. When we get saved (born again), we are entitled to go to God, stand in the presence of the Father in the name of Jesus, and make our petitions known.

How do we become righteous? We become righteous by being born again. When we’re born again, we are born righteous.

Hebrews 5:13 says, “For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness….” What does that mean? Being unskilled in the word of righteousness means that you do not understand you became righteous when you were saved, so you try to accomplish righteousness through your works.

It means you don’t understand that you can go boldly before the throne of grace and say, “Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask for Your grace in this situation.” If you do not know you are in right standing with God, if you do not know you can go before the Father and He will by grace meet your need, then you are unskilled in the word of righteousness.

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). You can be unskilled in the word of righteousness and still be a Christian, but you are a babe and will never get out of spiritual diapers until you know you can boldly go before the throne and, in right standing with God, ask for grace.

You must know it is not because of anything you have done, not because of how great you are, not because of how much you gave to the building fund, not because of how great your musical talents are or even because of how great you can preach, teach or witness. You must know you can boldly stand before the throne because having been saved by grace, you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

God saved you and gave you the right and the ability to stand before Him. Without God’s grace, you would never make it to the throne. He cleansed you and made you righteous by the blood of Jesus.

After God gives you grace, He doesn’t want you to be a spiritual wimp. He doesn’t want you to feel you’re not good enough to approach the Father. He wants you to come before Him the way the scripture says to approach Him—boldly! On the other hand, some Christians, in error, approach God with an attitude of arrogance.

There’s a big difference between being bold and being arrogant. We must approach Him not only with an attitude of sincere humbleness, but boldly with confidence. We can only do this through grace.

We work toward holiness by acting on the Word of God. But we are given, in a moment of time, the right (righteousness) to stand before God cleansed of all sin.

When are we made righteous? When old things pass away and all things become new. The old man dies and we’re born as a new creation, a new creature in Christ. At that moment we become righteous. We were born into the family of God and can stand before our Father boldly. We don’t need to be afraid He’s going to destroy us because of our sin. We can have confidence and know we have right standing, the ability to stand right before God.

But are we holy? We work toward holiness. The Greek word hagiazo that is translated holiness in the New Testament is also translated sanctification. In other words, we become holy, we work toward holiness, we work through sanctification, through the daily renewing of our minds through the washing of the water of the Word.

“…that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:26-27).

Decide you are going to take what you’ve learned and make right choices, and by doing that in grace, you’ll grow. Understanding you are made righteous and become holy is a major factor in rightly dividing the Word of God.