THE TRUTH ABOUT RIGHTEOUSNESS

Excerpts from the message

THE TRUTH ABOUT RIGHTEOUSNESS – 20^th August 2014

Prov 28:1

The righteous are as bold as a Lion and God wants us to come boldly to His throne of grace (Heb 4:16). Many times however, we run away from God when we are supposed to be running towards God, and one of the reasons for this is our consciousness of our righteousness/right standing before God. One of the definitions for righteousness is our ability to stand before God without a sense of guilt and one of the things that righteousness does for us is that it gives us boldness before God.

Two types of Righteousness

There are two types of righteousness;

·         Human righteousness (Our righteousness)

·         God’s righteousness

Human Righteousness (Isa 64:6)

Human righteousness is man’s definition of righteousness which is like filthy rags before God. This means that in God’s sight, even a seemingly perfect man is still very dirty before God. After the fall the man, the natural man became so corrupted that even a perfect natural man is still very unclean before God. If God should count iniquities, then none will be left standing (Psa 130:3) and God wants us to know that no matter how perfect a man is, he/she cannot meet up to God’s standard of righteousness.

 God’s Righteousness (Rom 10:1-3)

God has His own type of righteousness and it is different from man’s own. Paul says that because Israel was ignorant of God’s righteousness they were trying to establish their own; they were trying to establish the filthy rag that God wants to get rid of. The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ from faith to faith (Rom 1:16-17), and it is not something we do/work for but a gift to be received (Rom 5:17). A gift is not something we work for or spend money or effort on; rather it is something we receive free of charge. Righteousness is a gift and not a reward for doing right. God’s kind of righteousness is so great that we cannot work for it, so He gives it to us as a gift. Many times, our definition of righteousness comes from our keeping the LAW but many were called righteousness even before the LAW came. In Gen 6:9, the bible refers to Noah as a perfect man, same with Lot (2 Pet 2:7) and Enoch (Gen 5) and these are men who lived without the LAW. There is a righteousness apart from/without the LAW (Rom 3:21;28).

Rom 4:3-5

A man is called righteousness because of his/her faith in God. God’s type of righteousness is so great it cannot be attained; it is a gift that can only be received by believing in God. We therefore need to renew our minds; to stop thinking we are not righteous because we are not obeying certain laws, and to start knowing that we are righteousness because we believe in God. If one works for something, then what he/she receives is no longer by grace but a debt being paid; but if one doesn’t work but believes in God who justifies the ungodly (declares them not guilty), it counted to him/her as righteousness (Rom 4:4-5). God justifies the ungodly (2Cor 5:19) and the reason He does this is because He has changed their nature. He treats us according to what He has done for us already in Christ Jesus. God condemned the innocent (Jesus Christ) to justify the ungodly. God hates sin so much that He allowed His son to die on the cross, but it is also a testament of how much He loves us by allowing Christ to die in our place. We can never attain righteousness on our own. We must believe God and receive the gift of righteousness for us to overcome sin in life.

The Root of our Righteousness (Rom 7:1, 6:5-7;14)

The LAW has dominion over a man as long as he lives; when he dies he is freed from the law. As believers, we have died with Christ and hence free from the LAW. The reason God justifies us is because we have died with Christ. Real righteousness just like sin is not of works but of nature (Rom 6) so the same we became sinners because of Adam, we became righteousness because of Christ. Real righteousness is given by God and with it comes the ability to live right. Until we receive God’s righteousness we will not have the ability to live right; and we are righteous by our faith in Christ. Christ didn’t just pay for the punishment of sin but also for the power of sin to be broken in our lives.

(Rom 4:5-6, 8:3-4)

God imputes righteousness in our spirit (by our faith in Him), and by this righteousness we are able to live right. We have the righteousness of God and we are as righteousness as God (2Co 5:21).

As believers, God will be unrighteous if He punishes us for sins because Christ has received the punishment for sins. But should we decide to continue in sin, we will be destroying our souls, getting mature in sin and trapping ourselves, and the reason we will be destroyed is not because God did not make provision for our salvation, but because we took undue advantage of God’s mercy; using God’s grace as an excuse for misbehaviour. Christ has paid for our sins, all we have to do is receive God’s gift of righteousness and reign in life (Rom 5:17). We are righteous not because we keep the LAW but because we believe in Christ.