God Is Righteous – August 26, 2018 – Steve Miller
What does it mean to be righteous?
From dictionary.com: characterized by uprightness or morality; morally right or justifiable
But who determines what is right? Many people justify in their own minds behaviors and beliefs that are clearly wrong.
Avengers Infinity War: Would it be right to euthanize half the universe in order to save the other half?
In our modern world, many don't believe in absolute truth regarding right and wrong. The result of this thinking is that often “Might makes right.”
We believe that God is righteous, and it is He who determines what is right. And although God is almighty, He doesn't use that attribute to cause His mere whims to be “right.” He is righteous because He is love.
1 John 4:7-8 – 7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:16 – So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Jesus Himself boiled down all righteousness to loving God and other people:
Matthew 22:35-40 – 35And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the great and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
God gave the Law to Moses and Israel in the Old Testament in order to show them the right way to live. Israel's obedience to it was the basis of God's covenant with them.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 – 24The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. 25And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.
That's not good news. Even when we think we do righteous acts, they aren't, because they flow out of corrupt hearts with wrong motives like selfishness, pride, or fear.
Isaiah 64:6 – We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Israel failed to keep their covenant with their righteous God, and it resulted in judgment.
Daniel 9:14 – The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.
If that's the case, are we then without hope? No – praise God! Paul teaches amazing truths about God's righteousness in Romans:
Romans 3
10As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;
20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
21But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
22This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
25God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
God's righteousness is demonstrated most through His greatest act of love and mercy!
Jesus is the One who justifies us; He, through His death on the cross, is our only source of righteousness.
Does that mean that God doesn't care how we live? Certainly not. The grace of God within us through Jesus is an overflowing source of love for all of us who believe. We've been given new garments of righteousness to wear.
Ephesians 4:20-24 – 20That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
We have a new covenant with righteous God through the blood of Jesus. By repentance we can take off those filthy garments tainted by sinful motives and failure, and daily put on new ones. The redeemed life is one of constant renewal and regeneration in His righteousness.
John 15:9-11 – 9As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
Our righteousness comes through abiding in relationship with our righteous Lord!
