The Righteousness of Man

The Righteousness of Man

The bible speaks of righteousness more than 300 times in the Old and New Testament, telling us in Genesis 15 that as He was giving Abram the new name of Abraham, God said he was righteous because he believed God. Deuteronomy 6 says we are righteous if we are careful to observe the commandments before God. 1 Samuel 26 gives us the hope that God will repay us for our righteousness.

Daniel 9 reminds us that Righteousness belongs to God, but mankind is filled with open shame.   In the book of Matthew those who seek it are called blessed, and warned that our righteousness should surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees.

The first chapter of Romans repeats what is said in Genesis 15, that the righteousness of God is revealed in Faith and goes on to tell us that mankind is without excuse knowing what righteousness is.

2 Corinthians 5:20 tells us that “Jesus who knew no sin became sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”, so that as ambassadors of Christ our righteousness comes from Him and is for Him.

The Bible concludes in Revelation 22:11-12:

“Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy. Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.”

Throughout the Bible we should notice that righteousness is a character of God, and that we are again and again called to imitate his character – holy godliness.

We know that we were created not for our good pleasure, but for His, and that we are called to live a holy life seeking to be righteous in all we do. All 66 books of Scripture show us what that looks like, that it takes active engagement not passive agreement to God’s Word, and what will ultimately happen to those who live seeking Christ-likeness and those who don’t.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.   – 2 Corinthians 5:10

This brief and very incomplete summary may challenge us to dig deeper into what God desires for us, and help us ponder the things of life – why we are here, how we are to live, and what is to come.

Today the rule seems to be “Culture over (the) Character of God in us”, allowing worldly influence to guide many of our thoughts and actions. The road to righteousness is hard, failure inherent as the ruts and bumps hit us. God does not prevent the pain or suffering in our lives, or the consequences caused by our own foolish actions, or others, but He does promise to walk with us through the pain.   As we surrender ourselves to Him, God takes our pain and molds our character into the righteousness He desires.

God has promised to give us everything we need to make it a successful journey, and those of us who are married have the best environment to demonstrate holiness (consistently righteousness behavior) before one another, our children, family, church and community.

“We can, through faith and grace, become like Christ by practicing the types of activities he engaged in, by arranging our whole lives around the activities he himself practiced in order to remain constantly at home in the fellowship of his Father…  – Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines

And one day as we purpose in our hearts and efforts, yearn for, and gain righteousness in our thoughts and deeds, the Bible tells us that we like Abraham will receive a new name from the Lord of Hosts.