Righteousness of God

If someone has ever done you wrong, there is a very reasonable response of desire that justice be rendered, and that they receive an appropriate punishment. This begins even in early childhood when “unjust” treatment becomes the wailing of the offended sibling. “I’m gonna tell,” though, comes with an additional implied hope – that there will be an accompanying punishment. Just the knowledge of the wrong deed would not be enough. Until there was pain inflicted on the guilty brother or sister, things had not yet been made “right.”

This natural requirement of justice was the very reason for Jesus’ coming. For us to be in fellowship with a faultless and holy God, we would have to be made right from the many ways our own righteousness was hugely inadequate. Any attempts at earning a place by our own goodness could only come up woefully short. What was really bad, though, was that the punishment for our shortcomings was separation from Him in eternal torment. For justice to be rendered and righteousness gained, the punishment had to be received for all those “I’m-gonna-tells.” Jesus came to not only receive this punishment but to actually become it. By believing and receiving Him as our punishment, we are also receiving Him as our righteousness. In Him we become the very righteousness of God, acceptable in His presence without disqualification no matter what we’ve done. It’s in this righteousness that we can move forward with confidence to the place and purpose that’s ours at the Father’s side.

Notes

God foretells the establishment of His righteousness.

Isaiah 56:1 (NKJV) 1 Thus says the LORD: "Keep justice, and do righteousness, For My salvation is about to come, And My righteousness to be revealed.

In God’s justice is an established eternal righteousness.

Psalms 9:7-8 (NKJV) 7 But the LORD shall endure forever; He has prepared His throne for judgment. 8 He shall judge the world in righteousness, And He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness.

Though we’ve received a sin nature from Adam, we can receive greater righteousness in Christ.

Romans 5:17 (NKJV) 17 For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)

The good news is that God’s power has freed us from the condemnation of our disqualifications.

Romans 1:16-17 (NKJV) 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”

By knowing of and walking in the revelation of us as His righteousness, we fulfill His passion.

Romans 3:21-26 (NLT) 21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law (the righteousness of God), as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

Understanding what we freely have in Christ is critical for walking in it.

Romans 10:3-4 (NLT) 3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. 4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.

There is yet a consequence for departure from what is freely ours in Him.

Colossians 3:25 (NKJV) 25 But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.

There will be removal of our responses when there is understanding and deference to His.

James 1:19-20 (NKJV) 19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20 for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

As we live as God’s righteousness, we become a living interactive billboard for Him.

2 Corinthians 5:20-21 (NKJV) 20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Paul’s desperate pursuit to lose attempts for own righteousness by believing in what was already His in Christ.

Philippians 3:9 (NKJV) 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

Declarations:

Jesus became my punishment so that I can become His righteousness by believing in Him.
Because there is nothing my own righteousness can earn, I am freed from its concern to be everything His righteousness enables in me.
I live to grow in this reality and be evermore free from the limitations of my own efforts.
As I walk on this path as a demonstration of His righteousness I become a call for others to receive Him and His righteousness as well.