What is righteousness? Am I righteous? How do I become righteous? Do I need to do something for God to be accepted by Him? Can I live my life the way I like since Jesus has paid for my sins? This is a topic that is often misunderstood leading to errors. Therefore, it is essential that we understand what righteousness entails; hopefully, the above questions will be answered after this reading. Righteousness simply means you are right with God. You can't be partially right with God nor can you be partially wrong with God. You are either right with Him or not. Righteousness is like a two-faced coin. One side is righteousness by justification which is the foundation of the Christian life. This righteousness comes from faith in Christ Jesus and His work on the cross. The other side is righteousness by sanctification. This deals with the way we ought to live having been justified by faith in Christ. Both sides are crucial as one without the other is a sign you are not a Christian. The righteousness by justification is once and for all. Only God can orchestrate such a work. No man can. Sanctification on the other hand is a result of having believed and still believing in this work. It continues as we come to know God better and better till we depart from this earth, it goes on. So what about righteousness? Well, God is holy and cannot behold iniquity. So your sins must be atoned for when you approach Him that's why animals were sacrificed. Righteousness is the basis on which God deals with any man.
RIGHTEOUSNESS BY JUSTIFICATION
As I mentioned earlier, righteousness is something only God can orchestrate. Man is too powerless, weak, inconsistent, hypocritical and ignorant to bring about this justification that leads to salvation. God is a righteous and just judge meaning that as the judge of the whole earth, He doesn't do wrong. Since God is righteous and just, He can't just forgive you and let you go. Think about it, wouldn't you protest if a judge forgives someone like Hitler or Bin Laden or a guilty criminal and lets such a person go free? Won't we say such a judge is corrupt and unjust? Will the judge of the earth not do right? Will He not do justly? All men are just as guilty of wrongdoings and sin as those men were if not more. Once convicted, always convicted doesn't apply to criminals alone but to as many that have broken God's law. We are all guilty of breaking God's law. The righteous justice of God demands that we pay the death penalty for sin. You see because of sin (disobedience to God) we were cursed and doomed to eternal damnation. However, God for His glory and the great love with which He loved us, sent His Son to live a sinless life to our account (Romans 5:19) and pay the penalty that was due us by becoming a curse for us and dying in our place (Isaiah 53). He rose again for our benefit so that we can be a kingdom of kings and priests to God (Revelations 1: 5-6). He is sat at the right hand of the Father continually making intercession for you and me (Ephesians 2:6, Hebrews 7:25). For this reason, we can enter the holy of holies with boldness and without fear because of what Jesus did. Since Jesus has paid the price of sin, those who believe and are still believing in Him are legally right with the righteous judge, God. This is why we can boldly approach the throne of grace because Jesus paid for it all! This is why our prayers can be answered Jesus paid it all! We don't have to do something for God so that He will do something for us. We don't have to 'pay' something so that He will meet my needs and take care of things that concern me. We don't have to worry about tomorrow or yesterday. We don't have to 'work' for God to be blessed by Him. We don't have to attain certain moral standards or follow a set of rules to be legally right with God having backslidden or not. Jesus paid it all. We just need to keep believing in Him. Our full attention and focus must be on Jesus alone. Everything you have and will ever have as a believer is simply because Jesus paid for it all. All the promises of God are yes and amen in Him, not our works. We can't earn it. It is a gift of God. Romans 5:1 tells us that we have peace with God having been justified by faith in Jesus. We have peace. The wrath of God no longer abides on us. God sees us as righteous through Christ Jesus so far as we are in Him. This means that when we approach God, we drop our good works and evil deeds at His feet and look to Jesus. This is the foundation of righteousness.
RIGHTEOUSNESS BY SANCTIFICATION
This is also a work of God except that this requires our continuous participation, unlike justification. The destiny of every believer is to be like Christ (Romans 8:29). This work is a process, not an event. It is a lifelong process as we walk with God. This righteousness comes when we repent from sin as the word of God corrects us. Believers are repenting people. The fact that you repented once doesn't mean you don't need to repent. It is a sign of faith in Jesus and His work on the cross when you are growing in sanctification. This righteousness doesn't come from societal morality, cultural trends or emotions, it comes from God alone. Only the creator of the universe knows what is right and what is wrong so we look to His word to know how we are supposed to live. This is why we go to church. We shouldn't go to church to mark attendance or read our bibles so God can be happy with us. We go to church to learn about God. We read our Bibles and books to improve our walk with Him. Paul calls this transformation the renewing of our minds. As we renew our minds with God's word, we are being transformed into the image of Christ with ever-increasing glory by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 12:1-2, 2 Corinthians 3:18). Believers do not use the cross as a license to sin. We are the righteousness of God in Christ as we obey God and walk in His predetermined ways. This sanctification keeps us in our justified state. Growing in sanctification is a sign of faith in your justification. Do not be deceived, the one that does righteousness is righteous (1 John 3:7).
"In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother"- 1 John 3:10.
He that sins is a bondservant of sin and he that does righteousness is a bondservant of righteousness (John 8: 34, Romans 6: 15-23).
As we abide in Christ and His words abide in us we will bear fruit to God's glory (John 15). There is no end to bearing fruit so we must continue in the word of God and prayer. Hebrews 12:4 tells us to pursue holiness because without it no one will see the Lord.
"For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour…."- 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4.
Jesus said the one that does the will of the Father will enter into His kingdom (Matthew 7:21). These things were written to us, believers so that we don't become careless and end up losing our salvation. This doesn't mean that we are perfect and have no sin.
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" – 1 John 1:8-9.
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