Many Christians hope that when they stand before the judgment seat of God that they will be declared righteous and allowed into His eternal glory. The great thing is that God declares us righteous at the beginning of our journey, not at the end. The moment we commit our lives to Jesus and trust Him to be Lord of our lives, God the Father, “justifies those who faith in Jesus” (Rom 4:26). In 2 Cor 5:21, Paul writes, “God made him who has no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Since we were made righteous in the beginning of our journey, we don’t have to worry whether our behavior has been sufficiently meritorious to win God’s divine approval. It’s not based on what I have done anyway! It’s based upon what He did at the Cross.