WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT RIGHTEOUSNESS?

Psalm 33:4 (AFR '83 translation) states, "What the Lord says happens; everything He does stands firm. He loves righteousness and justice; the whole earth is full of the Lord's faithful love."

The Bible in 2 Timothy 2:22 clearly defines righteousness as something we must pursue, but we cannot perfect it on our own. Romans 3:9-12 makes it very clear that we are all born in sin and cannot produce any form of righteousness by ourselves.

So where do we find it? We must accept the reconciliation with God that He has accomplished for us. Christ was without sin, but God treated Him as a sinner in our place so that we might be justified by God. We could not produce it; Christ provided it for us, for our sake. Only the perfection of Christ could accomplish this work. Only those who live within the righteousness of Christ will enter His kingdom; therefore, righteousness is the only standard of living acceptable to God the Father. 

The wages of sin is death, but if we walk the path of righteousness, we find life. Proverbs 12:28 teaches us that this path does not lead to death but to the eternal destination where we will celebrate with God and His children. Many of us may think that a righteous life is more about behavior modification than heart transformation. The outward appearance of holiness is often what matters to many of us, rather than a Spirit-filled change. Righteousness is actually the result of a pure and Christ-centered lifestyle, not the other way around. This is the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We do not need to try to establish our own righteousness. Christ Jesus has clothed us in His righteousness. His entire earthly purpose and mission were to reconcile the church to Himself and grant it a justified position before God. He redeemed us, not based on anything we did for our justification, but on the basis of His own mercy.

Assignment:

Read Titus 3:5-7 and discover the full truth, the complete scope of God's righteousness given to us through the blood of Jesus Christ His Son, and take it for yourself.