RIGHTEOUSNESS

Two different aspects of this subject will occupy us: God’s righteousness and Man’s. But what do we mean by “righteousness”? Last month we looked at the subject of “holiness”, and we saw that practical “holiness” demands righteous living and righteous doing. “Righteousness” then in the Bible means doing the right thing, and, on the human level, following the ways of God. We should not think that Biblical righteousness is the same as righteousness from a human perspective, i.e. it is not merely external, conforming to rules and regulations as many Jews and Christians have thought, but is an inner attitude, an inner intent, to be right, and to do right.

Righteousness is  an attribute of God, it is part of His character (e.g. Psa 119:137). The Psalmist says, “The righteous Lord loves righteousness” (Psa 11:7), and again, “The Lord loves righteousness and judgement: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord” (Psa 33:5). That God is righteous means that what He thinks and what He does is always correct. There is an absolute purity, a perfect straightness about every single thought and activity of God. God commands that which is right (Psa 119:172), and does what is right; hence He is described as “righteous”. Speaking prophetically, Jeremiah describes the Messiah as “THE LORD (JEHOVAH) OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jer 23:6). Righteous is what God is, and all of His acts are righteous because they have their source in His righteous character. God is holy and that assures us that His actions are always absolutely correct and upright. If God acted in a certain way, then we can know with certainty that this particular action is a righteous one simply because it is what God did. He is righteous in His judgments, in His word, in His ways, in His acts, in His government. He discriminates between the good and the wicked. Did not the Lord say to Abraham, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen 18:25). Daniel writes, the LORD our God is righteous in all His works which He doeth (Dan 9:14).

When we come to “man’s righteousness”, the situation is quite different. Since man’s disobedience to God in Eden, we do not do or think those things that are right. In fact the Bible declares that “all our righteousness are as filthy rags” (Isa 64:6), and that applies to the best of us. Man therefore is not righteous even by his own standards, never mind God’s. So how can we be righteous? How can we have that inner intent to be right, and to do right? To answer those questions, it is perhaps worth recording some ideas that don’t make us righteous. 1. The idea of pursuing obedience to a law of works; this is what the Pharisees of our Lord’s day did, but as stated above, all our righteousness are as filthy rags. 2. The idea of being very sincere in a religion doesn’t make us right. The Apostle Paul had a very commendable background in the Jewish tradition – circumcised, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, touching the righteousness which in the law, blameless, etc. (Phil 3:4-7). He was very sincere, but later came to realise that this was of no eternal value.  In fact if we list other different ideas we will eventually come to the conclusion “there is none righteous no not one” (Rom 3:10), and what we will discover is that there is no way that we can ever be righteous on the basis of personal worth. You see the real problem in us being righteous is sin in our lives; we are all infected and impure with sin, and cannot be truly righteous. When we put on our prized robes of righteousness, we find they are but filthy rags. The only way we can ever be made righteous is if we could somehow take on the righteousness of God. Then we shall be what we ought to be.

This is possible and happens when we have faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, who is God, not only takes our sin, but in exchange He gives us His righteousness. In dying for us He satisfies God's righteous demand for punishment of our sin. But He goes still further. Jesus was not only "made sin for us" (2Cor.5:21); He "is made unto us righteousness" (1Cor.1:30). He pays the penalty of our sin and provides us with His very own perfection. This righteousness from God comes to all who believe in Jesus Christ (Rom 3:22). What a marvellous situation for the Christian. In God’s sight the Christian is as perfect as if he had never sinned. The LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS puts on the Christian “righteousness”, so the latter has more than the righteousness of man, he has the righteousness of God. This is why God the Father loves each Christian in the same way as He loves Jesus Christ, as Jesus Himself told us in John.17:23. Our righteousness is in the Lord. May we indeed be found in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith (Phil 3:9), and may that righteousness show itself in right living.