Righteousness

In the post I am going to take you through all that the Bible has to say about Righteousness. It is only when you understand the Word of Righteousness that you become mature as a Christian. (Hebrews 5:13).  

Righteousness can be defined as 'Right Standing with God'. The Bible speaks of two kinds of people: People who try to get right standing with God based on the works of the law and people who receive right standing with God by faith in Christ (his death and resurrection). (Romans 9:30-32). 

In Romans 9:30-31, Paul speaks of how the ungodly sinners who did not pursue Righteousness have attained it by faith in Christ but the Jews who pursued righteousness through the law did not attain it. Jesus spoke of something very similar when he said: the prostitutes and tax collectors are entering the Kingdom of God ahead of you. (Matthew 21:31). 

The Bible says it is easier for a prostitute or tax collector to receive right standing with God by faith than a  religious Man by his work. For the religious, faith in Christ is a stumbling stone (Romans 9:33). 

You may be a relatively good person and have great honor in the eyes of men. You may believe that you are in right standing with God based on you works. But you must realize that you too, like the prostitute have fallen short of the glory of God.

In the eyes of God every Man is a sinner: Jew or Gentile/ Religious or ungodly. (Romans 3:9). There are no great sinners or small sinners for God. There is no difference, for all sinned in Adam and are continuously falling short of the glory of God. (Ecclesiastes 7:20) (Romans 3:10). And therefore we all need to receive right standing with God through faith in Christ. (Romans 3:23-24)

Paul understood this and therefore said that he considered his righteousness dung compared to the righteousness which is from God by faith (Philippians 3:8-9). Paul did not want to be found having his own righteousness. He said that he counted all things loss. Do you know what he meant by 'all things'? He spoke of them in the earlier verses. (Philippians 3:4-7) The all things that he spoke of were His Jewish background and his works. 

It is important we realize like Paul that the right standing that God offers to us through faith in Christ is infinitely Superior to our own righteousness. (Ezekiel 33:12) (Isaiah 64:6) (Titus 3:4-7).

When you grab a hold of this truth, you begin to realize that God does not relate to you based on what you do but he relates to you based on what Jesus did (on the Cross). So that brings us to an interesting question: Can we go on sinning then, if God no longer relates to us based what we do? I will cover this in more detail in another post about Why we will not sin and Why we should not sin. But let me just say this, even if you do sin, God no longer relates to you based on what you do but on what Jesus did, therefore any sin that you do in Christ will not be imputed to you... Now that is Powerful! 

Romans 4:6-8 (NKJV)

just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: 

“ Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,

And whose sins are covered;

Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.”

Psalm 103:10 (NKJV)

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,

Nor punished us according to our iniquities.

Psalm 103:12 (NKJV)

As far as the east is from the west,

So far has He removed our transgressions from us. 

When you are in Christ, God no longer imputes sin to you (Romans 8:1). And he does not deal with you according to your sins deserve. 

Now, this will completely set you free from ever thinking that God is unhappy with you because of something you did. (John 8:32) You should not fear the judgement of God after this. Rather when you sin, instead of feeling guilty and running away from God, you should run to him and receive his grace and mercy. (Hebrews 4:16). God no longer relates to you according to what you do, rather he relates to you according to what Jesus did. I know this raises many questions like: Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? (Romans 6:1) or Is the Law sin? (Romans 7:7). Paul had to answer these questions when he preached the Gospel of grace and so will I in the coming posts. 

Also read | Righteousness of God