Righteousness - What is it? Who has it?

“Righteousness” is an old English word used in the King James Bible. Some look at the word and think that it just means: the quality of being right. But let’s look at the word’s original root in both the Hebrew and the Greek.

The Hebrew word is tsadaq – “to be MADE just in a moral sense.”
The Greek word is dikaios – “to be MADE innocent, holy.”
(From Strong’s Concordance)

The key words there are “to be made”. You have to be made righteous. You cannot make yourself righteous. Self-righteousness is an impossibility – although we certainly attempt it many times.

Also there is just no making ourselves “innocent and holy”. There is no power within the human soul for having innocence and holiness. These are qualities that only God can have.

The world uses terms such as “integrity” of character. When you hear the word integrity, what do you think of? Do you think of honesty? sincerity? completeness? soundness? whole and undivided? Probably all of these can be used to help define integrity. But integrity is NOT righteousness. I think of integrity as: BEING EXTERNALLY WHAT I ClAIM TO BE INTERNALLY! And I do claim to have righteousness internally – not my own, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ living in me. That is, integrity involves living a life that is free from hypocrisy, a life where one walks what they talk! When we lack integrity, we hurt not only ourselves in our daily actions, but also the name of Christianity.

But you say, “Sure, I TRY to have integrity, but I make mistakes – I’m only human!” How many times have you heard humans say, “I’m only human!”? Let me state that NO ONE who has ever lived is “only human”!

Every human being is a combination of spirit, soul and body. The soul and body are the HUMAN part. But the human spirit comes from another realm – the spirit world. A Christian who has believed in and accepted Christ as Savior and Lord has Christ living right within his human spirit. An unbeliever unknowingly allows Satan’s nature to control his human spirit – “You are of your father, the devil, and his works you will do” (John 8:44). So no matter how you cut it, we are not just human.

Integrity for a Christian is nothing more than just living up to what you really are, how the Father sees you – having the righteousness of Christ within you. The Father sees you as just, as innocent, as holy – as RIGHTEOUS – no matter what you do. A Christian cannot make himself righteous, AND he cannot make himself unrighteous in the eyes of the Father. Because when the Father looks at us, He sees Christ in us doing a work.

What is the work of Christ? Twofold – one past and one present. In the past He shed His blood to pay our debt before a righteous God. By His sacrifice He ransomed us from the penalty of sin. And Christ’s righteousness was given to us by faith. It is through Christ and Christ alone that lost humanity has found hope. It is by Christ’s righteousness that a Christian stands justified and righteous before his Creator. Yes, Jesus came and fulfilled a glorious work of reconciliation and power. But that’s not the end of the story!

We read in Hebrews 7:25, “He [Christ] is able also to save them completely that come to God by Him, seeing that He forever lives to make intercession for them.” And in 1 John 2:1 we read, “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Yes, the work of Christ still goes on beyond the cross.

Accepting Christ’s righteousness by faith on a continuous basis (not just initially) is an area where many Christians have lacked integrity. Many while acknowledging the righteousness of Christ for their initial justification go on to try to establish their own righteousness before God. It’s almost as if we say, “Thanks Jesus for cleaning me up and erasing my past, but I think I can make it from here. See ya later if I need you again.” This happens when well-meaning Christians believe that they maintain their righteousness by obedience to the law, specifically the 10 Commandments, and cease to rest in the righteousness of Christ. When Christians fall into this trap they effectively cease to acknowledge and accept the ON-GOING work of Christ. They gladly acknowledge the “clean-up job” when initially saved but then go on to reject Christ’s continuous work within them of presenting us before God as righteous.

Falling into the trap of self-righteousness is easy for us. Deep within each of us is a conflict between the humanity of man (soul and body) and the spirituality of man (human spirit). The human part desires to exalt himself above his fellows through works. Just as it was gratifying for the Pharisees to compare themselves with others based on the law and consequently become prideful and arrogant, so it is with us.

The 10 Commandments become a focal point in this conflict. Many look to the 10 as a source of comfort and pride in trying to please God. But can the 10 live up to the billing? What does the Word say?

“By the deeds of the law, no one shall be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested…even the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” (Romans 3:20-22, 28).

Let’s for the sake of argument consider the possibility, for a moment, that we do maintain our righteousness by obedience to the law. If we do so we will discover that first, obedience is a hard task master; second, we are popping in and out of salvation all the time; and third, there is no rest in Christ.

Obedience is a hard task master. To maintain our righteousness by obedience would require that we obey perfectly. “For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of ALL!” (James 2:10). Try as we might, 99.999999999% obedience to the law doesn’t cut it before God. God’s holy character demands 100%. And we’re not talking 100% obedience to the letter of the law, we’re talking 100% also to the spirit of the law which is total love of God and total love of neighbor. Wow!

So if we DO maintain our righteousness by obedience to the law, what would happen if we sin? We would become UNRIGHTEOUS before an all-righteous God – lost, condemned to death! Yes, obedience is a hard task master.

Of course, we could always repent and get saved again couldn’t we? So when we sin, we would repent. Sin, repent. Sin, repent. Sin, repent. Lost, saved. Lost, saved. Lost, saved. The Bible talks about a book called the Lamb’s Book of Life. Everyone who is saved is written in it. Under the above scenario our name would be erased, written in; erased, written in; erased, written in – some of us would really keep the Recorder Angel busy!

The end result of trying to establish our righteousness by obedience is bondage. Bondage to the law, bondage to sin, and bondage to failure. There is no REST in the righteousness of Christ when we seek to establish our own.

But if we Christians abiding in Christ don’t maintain our righteousness before God by obedience, then why should we obey? If this is true, couldn’t we say, “Let’s all go out and sin that grace may abound!”?

Paul answered the question in Romans 6:1 with a resounding, “God forbid!” Paul knew these type of questions would naturally spring forth and would need to be dealt with.

But in reference to salvation, it’s like asking, “Why do fish swim? Why do birds fly?” They swim and they fly because that’s what they’re made to do. You see, if you have received salvation you have been made to have the integrity on the outside which corresponds to the righteousness of Christ on the inside. A faith with works. A living faith. A saving faith just ultimately produces good works.

So why do we obey? For many reasons, but let me give you four.

First, we obey because we love Him, we don’t want to hurt the one who first loved us. Perhaps this reason has been overused and abused but nonetheless it’s still true.

Second, we obey because we made a commitment to Christ not only as Savior but LORD. We counted the cost and surrendered our will to His and said, “Lord, I give up all to embrace you.”

Third, we obey because we are brand new creatures, a new human species. We are born again. We are newly made true children of God. We go from the pig who loves to wallow in the mud to the Christ-person who loves to take a shower every day. We’ve been transformed to a different Person in our human spirit and are being transformed daily in our soul by the Spirit of God!

Fourth and finally, we obey because the Holy Spirit of God works within us for our perfection. The Holy Spirit is on a daily mission to develop a greater and greater awareness in our soul of Christ and HIS righteousness in us and for us. Some Christians will be transformed in their souls before their death more than others. But it is like the parable which Jesus used to illustrate salvation. The workers who labor all day (whose soul transformation is slower) receive the same wage (salvation) as those workers who work only an hour (whose soul transformation is quicker and more complete). (Matthew 20:1-16).

Are you trusting Christ within with integrity? Do you understand and accept the work of the Holy Spirit in you life? Are you resting in Christ’s righteousness? This is the total package of accepting Jesus as Lord!

If we do, we will find peace for our souls and vigor for our daily walk – IN CHRIST’S RIGHTEOUSNESS.

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