The word
"righteousness" has become a religious cliché that has lost its
meaning to many people. Even Christians are confused about what righteousness
is and how to receive it. This has left our society without a clear
understanding of what it takes to have a relationship with God. This is
reflected in our nation's moral collapse. It's imperative that we get back to
the basics of righteousness.
A layman's
definition of righteousness is simply, "right standing with God."
Righteousness is the condition of being in right relationship with the Lord.
This can only happen through TOTAL faith and dependence upon Christ. There is
no other way, and there is nothing we can add to our faith to obtain right
relationship with the Lord (Rom. 11:6).
One of the things
that blinds people to a true understanding of righteousness is confusion about
how we become right in the sight of God. It is commonly thought that our actions
are the determining factor in God's judgment of our righteousness. That's not
true. There is a relationship between our actions and our right standing with
God, but right relationship with God produces actions, not the other way
around. That is to say, we are not made righteous by what we do.
Righteousness is a
gift that comes from the Lord to those who accept what Jesus has done for them
by faith (Rom. 5:17-18). The gift of salvation produces a changed heart that,
in turn, changes our actions. Actions cannot change our hearts. It's the heart
of man that God looks upon (1 Sam. 16:7), and we must be righteous in our
hearts to truly worship God (John 4:24).
The mistake of
thinking that doing right makes us right is the same error the Pharisees made.
Religion has always preached that if we clean up our actions, our hearts will
become clean too. Jesus taught just the opposite (Matt. 23:25-26). It's through
a changed heart that our actions change. The heart is the issue. Actions are
only an indication of what is in our hearts. Actions are the fruit the heart
produces.
Modern-day
Christianity often puts the emphasis on actions instead of issues of the heart.
This is reflected in Christians' excessive efforts to legislate change in
people's actions instead of changing their hearts by the preaching of the
Gospel. It's the Gospel that contains the power of God, not political action
groups (Rom. 1:16). Laws only affect actions. The Gospel changes hearts. Once
hearts are changed, actions change.
Contrary to
popular belief, Christianity does not promote receiving justice from the Lord.
Praise God for that! The Lord has a much better plan. We get what we believe.
'you don't need justice, you need mercy'.
That's the way it
is with God. We sometimes call for justice but that's not what we need. As the
Scriptures say, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every
one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all"
(Is. 53:6). Again, in Romans 3:23 the Scriptures say, "For all have
sinned, and come short of the glory of God." "There is none
righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3:10).
The wonderful plan
of salvation is that those who put their faith in Jesus and what He did for us
get what He deserves. On the other hand, those who do not put their total faith
in Christ will ultimately get what they deserve. Believe me, that is not what
they want. Religion has subtly instructed people to trust in their own goodness
instead of God's. This will never work. "For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).
The Biblical story
of the handwriting on the wall illustrates this point (Dan. 5:1-31). Belshazzar
was the king of Babylon. His father, Nebuchadnezzar, had conquered the nation
of Israel and brought all the wealth of the temple, along with most of the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, back to Babylon. During an extravagant feast, with
1,000 of his lords in attendance, Belshazzar chose to toast his gods using the
golden vessels from the temple in Jerusalem, which was in open defiance of the God
of Israel.
The Lord moved
swiftly and dramatically by creating an image of a man's hand, with fingers
that wrote on the wall in front of Belshazzar and all his guests. Belshazzar
called on all his magicians and wise men to decipher the writing, but none could.
Then the queen reminded Belshazzar about Daniel who had interpreted the dreams
and visions of Nebuchadnezzar when no one else could. Daniel was summoned and
the writing explained.
The message from
God revealed that Belshazzar had been weighed in the balances and was found
wanting. Therefore, his kingdom was divided and given to the Medes and
Persians. This came to pass that very night. Belshazzar was overthrown, and
Darius, the Mede (Persian), took control.
If we were weighed
in the balances against God's righteousness as Belshazzar was, we too would
come up short. God's righteousness is always more in quantity and quality than
ours will ever be. Our righteousness is as filthy rags compared to God's
righteousness (Isaiah. 64:6).
Someone might say,
"That's not fair. No one can compete with God's righteousness."
That's exactly right! However, God's righteousness is the standard by which
everyone must be measured. So then, how can anyone be saved? The answer is that
no one can be saved, if they are trusting in their own righteousness. We all
must have a righteousness that exceeds anything we could ever produce through
our own effort. That's where Jesus enters.
Jesus was in right
relationship with God as no one else can be. He is the Son of God. He is God
manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy. 3:16). He is holy and pure and without sin, yet
He became sin for us (2 Corinthians. 5:21), through no wrongdoing on His part. He took
our sin in His own body on the cross (1 Peter. 2:24). "Surely he hath borne
our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of
God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised
for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his
stripes we are healed" (Isaiah. 53:4-5).
In return for Jesus
taking our sin, those who put their faith in Him get His righteousness instead
of their own. It's not our actions that make us acceptable to the Father. It's
our trust in Jesus that imparts the righteousness of Jesus into our born-again
spirits that makes us in right standing with God.
Those who don't
understand this righteousness, which comes from God as a gift, become
frustrated trying to establish their own righteousness through good works (Romans.
10:3). It won't work. It's an all or nothing situation (Romans. 11:6). We must
trust completely in what Jesus did for us to obtain right relationship with
God. Any trust in our own goodness will void the atonement Christ made for us
(Galatians. 5:4).
This is precisely
the condition of millions of people in the body of Christ today. They receive
salvation by putting total faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins,
but then they return to believing that the Lord still relates to them on the
basis of their works, even after their salvation. That's not true.
Colossians 2:6
says, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him." That means if you were saved by putting faith in God's grace alone,
then you maintain that relationship in the same way. Some people sing
"Just As I Am Without One Plea" when they are born again. They need
to sing this song all the way through their Christian lives.
Failure to
understand this truth is at the root of all guilt and condemnation. Satan's
only inroad into our lives is sin. If we understand our right standing with God
on the basis of what Jesus did for us, and not by our own actions, then Satan's
power to condemn is gone. Those who live with a feeling of unworthiness are not
trusting in God's righteousness but are looking to their own actions to obtain
right standing with God. That will never work.
Thanks be to God for Jesus!!!! Hallelluyah !!!