RIGHTEOUSNESS

I have heard many attempts at defining "righteousness," but none of them seems adequate to explain what it means. Before Satan got Adam to "take a bite out of life," Adam had fellowship, a right standing, with his Creator. After he sinned, Adam and Eve hid from God, which indicates to me that they no longer had a right standing with God. God had told Adam that if he ate the forbidden fruit, he would die that very day (Gen. 2:17). Since he lived hundreds of years before his physical death, the death spoken of by God had to be spiritual death (Gen. 5:5). A right standing with God, that is, fellowship with God, seems to help define "righteousness."

Paul wrote, "...the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord." (Rom. 6:23). Spiritual death is man's condition at the moment he sins, and in order to be born again spiritually, he has to receive Christ and the gift of eternal life that is found only in Him. Jesus explained to Nicodemus that he needed to be born again spiritually (Jn. 3:1-8). In other words, because of Nicodemus' sin, he was spiritually dead. Physically, he was alive, but spiritually, he was dead. In order for him to have a right standing with God, he had to be born again spiritually. Being born again seems to help define "righteousness."

Based upon what God's Word says about Abraham, righteousness comes by faith in God (Rom. 4:3; Gal. 3:6; Jam. 2:23). Abraham believed God's revelation to him. He didn't know about Jesus death for his sins, because that was still a mystery (Eph. 3:4-5). He simply trusted God, and God gave him the gift of righteousness (Rom. 5:17). Because we have the benefit of knowing that Jesus shed His blood for our sins, faith for us includes believing the expression of God's love toward us in the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son (Jn. 3:16; 1 Cor. 15:3-4). The Word explains that a person's life is in the blood, so when it says Jesus shed His blood for us, what it means is that He gave His life for us (Lev. 17:11). We know that without His death, there would be no remission of sins (Heb. 9:22). The Gospel is that we have remission of our sins by faith in Christ, and that belief produces repentance (Lk. 24:47). First John, written to Christians, indicates that born again Christians who sin are unrighteous, because when we confess our sins to God, He restores us to fellowship with Him by cleansing us of all unrighteousness (1 Jn. 1:9). Because being born again does not necessarily mean that we are righteous all of the time, being born again can not totally define "righteousness."

Because we know righteousness is a gift, and therefore grace, we know it is totally dependent upon God Who is our righteousness; we are not righteous of ourselves, but we are in Christ (Rom. 3:22;5:17; Phil. 3:9; Jer. 23:6; 33:16). I get the distinct impression that being righteousness is the same as being holy. And since we are not yet like Christ, we must wait for that glorious day when we shall be like Christ: Holy, and righteous (1 Jn. 3:2). Until that day, I will praise God for His righteousness!