What if you had never heard of the word righteous? You might go to Google and do a simple search on the word righteous. If you did, you might find: The Righteous Brothers...Righteous Persons...The Righteous Among the Nations...Righteous Mothers...Righteous Defense...Righteous Anger...Righteous Fury...Righteous Gentiles...The Self-Righteous Brothers (a band)...Jewish Foundation for the Righteous...and the list goes on...
The simple dictionary definition of the word righteous is "morally upright, without guilt, without sin...good, just, morally excellent, virtuous, worthy, honorable." Wikipedia's page describing righteousness was very interesting. Go to: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteousness)
Today people don't talk a lot about righteousness but a quick look in the Bible indicates how important this is to God and thus also to us. The righteousness of God is stated very clearly throughout scripture (Ps. 17:15 &16). The sin of man--his utter unrighteousness--is also clearly presented (Ps. 51:5, Is. 53:6).
Read Romans 5:5 and follow to the end of the chapter:
For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult (dance) in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation....v. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
God is innately Righteous. He did not become righteous--He is Righteous. Out of love for us, He made a way for us, through faith in Christ, (not by anything we can do or have done) to experience, as our own, His righteousness forever.
3 comments:
This entire week has been great but especially today. As I was reading the Scriptures and Wikipedia, I was struck by the Relationship connection... it is only through our relationship with Christ as Lord and Saviour that The Father sees us as Righteous; it is only by Knowing Jesus/the Father, that we can trust; as our trust grows so does our love; love is shown through our obedience... obedience speaks to delighting in and loving Him... which brings us full circle to His Righteousness. Ps. 37:3-7 speaks to this relationship/righteousness connection. As you so aptly put it, we can never earn or deserve it.
Righteous!
Good discussion of righteous(ness).Thought provoking. "Righteous" is a word I grew up hearing in church, so never gave it too much thought. I love the scripture text.
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