Righteousness is good.
I'm slightly astonished that this should need to be pointed out. Yet, it does.
Righteousness is one of God's fundamental attributes.
For the Lord is righteous; He loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold His face.
~Psalm 11:7
God is righteous.
The Psalms are full of praise to God for His righteousness.
He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. ~Psalm 33:5
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O Lord. ~Psalm 36:6
By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. ~Psalm 65:5
Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? ~Psalm 71:19
This is only a smattering. Scripture is full of praise to God for His righteousness.
God's righteousness is part of His glory and His holiness. It is both beautiful and desirable.
Let's try to define righteousness before we go any farther. Sometimes it is helpful to define a word in terms of its opposite, in terms of what it is not:
Righteousness is the opposite of sin.
If sin is rebelling against the ways of God, then righteousness is cooperating with the ways of God. If sin is doing the wrong thing, then we can see that righteousness is doing the right thing. If sin is displeasing to God, righteousness is pleasing to God.
God's righteousness is bound up in His purity, His holiness, His perfect wisdom and justice, and the fact that He never makes a mistake.
Righteous people are kind, fair, patient, wise, honest and altogether trustworthy. Righteous people exude peace, joy and love. Righteous people reflect the righteousness of God as beacons of hope in a dark world. Righteous people make mistakes, but they repent humbly and quickly, and seek to make amends. Righteous people will never be perfect in righteousness (until they get to heaven), but they are always increasing in righteousness.
Within Christianity, there exists quite a powerful school of thought that renounces righteousness. I'm not sure whether this stems from an irrational fear, or a blind justification for apathy towards sin, or even a base desire to preserve sinful habits. Those who distance themselves from righteousness tend to associate seeking righteousness with what they call legalism.
Legalism (I've said this before, and I'll say it again) is when people think they can independently, through their own power, attain a standard of righteousness that would be acceptable to God. Another word for this is self-righteousness, which is an oxymoron, and should never be confused with true righteousness. Legalism is not when people aim to live lives that are obedient to scripture and pleasing to the Lord because they love Him. Legalism is not when God's indwelling Spirit teaches and empowers righteousness in the inmost being of a believer. Legalism is the farthest thing from righteousness. Legalism grows out of pride, and pride is sin, and sin is the opposite of righteousness. Those who are so concerned about legalism would do better to confront the problem of pride. In today's world, we have fallen so far from righteousness that authentic legalism is essentially a non-issue. Pride, on the other hand, is alive, well, and invading the lives of both believers and unbelievers everywhere.
We are called to be righteous. We are called to live lives that are pleasing to the Lord.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. ~Psalm 19:14
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. ~Psalm 51:6-7
But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ~Matthew 6:33
We are saved from sin, so that we can live good, righteous lives that benefit us and glorify God.
He Himself [Jesus Christ] bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24
Salvation is a real and practical event by which the atoning sacrifice of Christ cleanses us, declaring us justified, innocent not by our own merits, but because He bore the wrath of God in our place. Although in our natural state we are utterly unworthy, He declares us worthy to experience fellowship with God through the tearing of His own priceless flesh; Christ was and is the the only intrinsically worthy one.
And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth. ~Revelation 5:9-10
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ~Hebrews 10:19-22
As you can see from these scriptures, it doesn't end with our declared righteousness. God continues pouring out more grace, transforming us (Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 3:18) into reigning priests under our High Priest, Jesus Christ, with clean hearts and purified bodies (Ezekiel 36:25). God makes us new (2 Corinthians 5:17, Revelation 21:5). We become righteous, internally righteous, substantively righteous and not merely theoretically or philosophically. This is the mysterious and gradual, yet observable, work of the Spirit of God in us (John 3:8).
We will explore more about this real and miraculous righteousness, next time.
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