Understanding Righteousness

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith… (Romans 1:16-17).

Through the years, men have sought righteousness, wanting to be righteous before God. However, the reason for their inability to attain righteousness or even comprehend what it means is that the righteousness of God is only revealed in the Gospel of Christ.

The Gospel of Christ is the unveiling of God’s righteousness; it is the Gospel of God’s righteousness. Therefore, until one accepts the Gospel of Christ, he or she will never be able to live a righteous life or know what the righteousness of God is.

Righteousness gives you the ability to stand in the presence of God without condemnation, guilt, fear or sense of inferiority. It’s the ability to stand in fellowship with God and have the righteousness of God in your spirit. There’s no other way to come into this extraordinary life of righteousness and oneness with the Lord except through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is why we can’t afford to be quiet about the Gospel. It’s the answer to man’s cry. Let’s not act as though there’s another way. There’s no other way for men to learn of the righteousness of God, receive the righteousness of God, or understand the righteousness of God, outside of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So, don’t be quiet in your locality, city, town, or nation; make the message of salvation known.

You hold the key to the salvation of men; therefore, preach the Gospel and unveil the righteousness of God to them. Be the answer to their search for God’s righteousness.

The Bible definition of righteousness doesn’t mean right living; right living is a result of righteousness. You can’t live right until you’re righteous. Thus, righteousness, essentially, is a nature; the nature of God that produces in a human person the rightness of God.

“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

The man who’s born again is a completely new species, one that never existed before. He has only one nature, which is the divine nature, the nature of righteousness.

For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ (Romans5:17).

Now that you’re born again, the life and nature of God have completely supplanted the human life and nature with which you were born by your biological parents.

One day, I asked a born-again gentleman: “Are you righteous?” He paused to think for a while and replied, “I am working on it.” “So, how are you going to know when you are finally righteous?” I quizzed him further. At that point, he didn’t know what more to say. Like that gentleman, many Christians don’t think they are righteous because they equate righteousness with right living. They look at their actions to rate their righteousness. But there is a difference between the two concepts.

The Bible says “…. if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).

When you received Christ into your heart, God gave you the righteousness as a gift. It’s not something you worked for. Righteousness is the nature of God that is imparted to the human spirit that produces in you the ability to stand before God without guilt, inferiority or condemnation. Righteousness is that nature of God that produces in you the rightness of God and gives you right standing with God. Now, right living, on the other hand, is doing what is right and required of God as a way of life. They are not the same.

Right living is the product of righteousness. No man could live right until he’s first of all righteous; God can only require a man to live right after that man has been made righteous. This is the reason He imparted righteousness to you freely. The ability to do the right things can only flow naturally from a righteous person. Now some of your actions may still be imperfect, but that doesn’t in any way impact your righteousness. What you need to do is get the Word of God into you, and righteousness will find expression through your actions.

When you were born again, you became as righteous as Jesus is, for you were made righteous with His righteousness. You can’t be more righteous than you are right now, for God’s righteousness is perfect, which is what you already have in Chríst–and you can’t improve on perfect. That righteousness is in your spirit, and it produces in you right living—the ability to do right!

And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? None is good, save one, that is, God (Luke 18:18-19).

Aside from being a gift that we received, there’s more to righteousness. The righteousness of God is also about the goodness of God—His equity. In our opening scripture, Jesus was trying to explain to the rich young ruler about the “goodness” of God, because goodness is about righteousness, rightness, or right judgment.

How can you judge what’s right? How can you judge which way is right, and which way to go in life? How do you differentiate what’s right from what’s wrong? How do you distinguish what has glory from what has shame? How do you decide what’s of God from what’s not of God? How do you determine that which is godly? That’s righteousness!

What does it mean to walk in the righteousness of God? For example, in judging issues and situations, you’re not looking for who’s right or who’s wrong; you side up with His Word! You’re on one side—God’s side of righteousness. Your life becomes beautiful because you look at the world from the standpoint of God’s righteousness, not man’s opinion.

Think about living your life like that: Everybody is thinking in a certain way, seeing and appraising things from the human perspective, but you’re seeing from, and with, the eyes of God; that’s the beauty and power of righteousness. If you would understand the righteousness of God, it would take away such base things as envy, wrath, malice, anger, etc.; all of such demeaning vices will be out of your life when you don’t see with the eyes of men, but with the eyes of God.

When you consciously live this way, there’ll be an awesome force—a love-attraction in your life that pulls people to you; there’s something about the righteousness of God that captivates men. Recall that we said: it’s about His goodness; when you function in righteousness, you become the epitome of God’s goodness: the expression and representation of how good God is.

For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17).

The nature of God has manifold descriptions, and one of such is that which demonstrates His rightness and perfection. God just can’t be wrong, because He is God. He’s the yardstick for measuring what is right; the reference for rightness. In everything and all situations, He’s perfect, just and right. That’s His character!

Secondly, righteousness is the nature of God that’s imparted to the human spirit to produce in him the rightness of God. Righteousness is a gift, and when God imparts a human spirit with it, that person will immediately have the rightness of God in his or her heart and just know what is right.

Thirdly, righteousness gives or produces right standing. Right standing is that ability to stand before God without condemnation or inferiority. No ordinary man can stand before God until God gives him the ability to stand in His presence and talk with Him without fear, inferiority, or condemnation.

Someone might ask, what if I feel condemned or inferior before God? If you feel a sense of guilt, condemnation or inferiority in the presence of God doesn’t mean you’re guilty, condemned or inferior. Let me tell you what to do if you feel overwhelmed by such negative emotions: get into the Word of God and begin studying and meditating on the Word. Before long, the Word will rid you of those wrong emotions of the senses.

The Word of God is a cleanser (John 15:3); it builds your faith and confidence (Acts 20:32). Also remember what the Bible says: “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things” (1 John 3:20). God’s Word is greater than your emotions. It imparts to you the truth about who you are. That knowledge destroys every sense of guilt, condemnation, or inferiority, and inspires the confidence of the Spirit in you. Hallelujah!