Righteousness

Righteousness: Morally upright; without guilt or sin in full accord with virtue or morality. Morally justifiable

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Rom 3:23)

If we would accept the above definition of righteousness, we would be in full agreement and have no debate with Paul. But we are not all so malleable. There are not so few who would insist that they are not ‘sinners’. There are many more who reckon, that if and when they do err, there is always the avenue of an apology and that reparation would restore and make things ‘right’. Sincerity will always be a mitigating advantage but can it nullify the breach? The truth, that a thing once broken cannot be unbroken. We deceive ourselves by glossing over. More innocuous is the fact that the guilty have already lost the standing capacity to declare themselves innocent! It is commonplace for man to have elastic judgment, especially where self-preservation is imagined. Still, many would make themselves the final arbiter of right and wrong, choosing to ignore the Judge of His world. A man declaring himself ‘righteous’, struggles either in his understanding or the standard; by allowing himself that right, he promotes himself the higher arbiter. A proper estimate, of who we are, would cause us to be more wary of self-righteousness.

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isa 64:6)

I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee. (Isa 57:12)

His judgments are clear: that our deeds are lacking in merit and at best ‘filthy rags’. However noble or sacrificial our deeds, it would not be difficult to accept that they can be tainted with self-interest, man’s praise, innocent errors and myriad pollutions.

It was rather sad that the man who attended the wedding feast in his own garments was evicted. It would be unfair, if not foolish, to imagine that the man was not, in his own eyes, properly attired. He was clearly quite confident of himself until he met his Host. It is inconceivable that he was dressed in rags on that occasion; he would have known better. Wherein lay his misjudgment?

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Mat 5:6)

Yet Scripture does not nullify the need to be righteous. The Lord Himself taught that we should hunger and thirst after righteousness. Is this by default therefore a lost cause, if our every effort is at best filthy rags? In our enthuse, can it be a blessed thing when we are straddled to generate more rubbish!

In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness. (Jer 33:16)

I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; (Isa 42:6)

Outside of grace, without faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, there is no righteousness. He has purchased and made available to us His righteousness. In Him, in His Name, everything we do is ‘perfected’ to the glory of our Father. Our access and standing is premised on, and provided for, by His imputed righteousness. Without Him, we are not righteous, never have been, or ever will be. It was John the Baptist who declared ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’

And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Php 3:9)

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1Pe 2:24)


Do we truly know Him?

God bless.



/ckh