Simple Righteousness
Righteousness: acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or
sin. (Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary). Webster on the Internet: 1. Acting in
a just, upright manner, virtuous. 2. Morally right or justifiable. We all exist within
God's reality, on His righteous terms, and according to God's pleasure, "before Jehovah;
for He comes; for He comes to judge the earth; He shall judge the world with righteousness
and the people with His truth." (Psalm 96:13), "The way of the wicked is hateful
to Jehovah; but He loves him who pursues righteousness." (Proverbs 15:9) "So says
Jehovah: Keep justice and do righteousness, for My salvation is near to come, and
My righteousness to be revealed." (Isaiah 56:1), "he has walked in My statutes and
has kept My judgments to deal truly, he is righteous; surely he shall live, declares
the Lord Jehovah." (Ezekiel 18:9). Looking at the New Testament, "Be aroused righteously
and do not sin: for some have ignorance of God. I speak shame to you." (I Corinthians
15:34), "that you keep the commandments spotless, blameless, until the appearing
of our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Timothy 6:14), "If you know that He is righteousness,
know that everyone doing righteousness has been born of Him." (I John 2:29), "Little
children, let no one lead you astray; the one practicing righteousness is righteous,
even as that One is righteous." (I John 3:7) and, "By this the children of God and
the children of the Devil are revealed: everyone not practicing righteousness is
not of God; also the one not loving his brother." (I John 3:10), and of course there
are other verses showing that righteousness is the path to salvation and this is
achieved by the "doing" of righteousness, as the dictionary indicates and as it is
presented throughout God's word, "righteous" #6662 Strong's Concordance: tsaddiyq';
from 6663; just: -
Unrighteousness is the transgression of God's law, "Everyone practicing sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness." (I John 3:4), "Do not yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin; but yield yourselves to God as living from the dead, and your members instruments of righteousness to God." (Romans 6:13). He gave us a simple list of ten commands, to be honored by our willing and desired obedient heart, not only now but throughout eternity because these standards will be carried in the heart with those who enter the kingdom of God, "For I say to you, If your righteousness shall not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, in no way shall you go into the kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 5:20). Righteousness is the obedience of men to God's commands; the laws of the Ten Commandments were not discarded at the cross, God Jehovah wrote all ten commands with His own finger, to avoid man having any influence on His laws and He wrote them on stone to indicate that they would not change or be erased. The sacrificial laws given to Moses were the laws that were canceled at the cross, because Christ fulfilled the requirements in being the perfect sacrifice, "The lamb of God" for the blood payment of mankind's sins.
Let Christ speak on the subject of righteousness: "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness! For they shall be filled." (Matt. 5:6), "Blessed are they who have been persecuted for righteousness sake! For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." (Matt. 5:10). After Christ's resurrection, He spoke of the comforter to be sent, "And when that One comes, He will convict the world concerning sin, and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment." (John 16:8). The writer of Acts speaks of righteousness as, not under any conviction of sin, "but in every nation the one fearing Him and working righteousness is acceptable to Him." (Acts 10:35). The moral principles of God's Ten Commandments are valid, because Christ asks us to repent, "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent! For the kingdom of Heaven has drawn near." (Matthew 4:17), "Truly then, God overlooking the times of ignorance, now strictly charge all men everywhere to repent, because He set a day in which He is going to judge the habitable world in righteousness by a Man He had appointed; having given proof to all by raising Him from the dead." (Acts 17:30,31) and again, reminding us that righteousness is the right keeping of the laws of God, and repentance is abstaining from the sins we once cherished and committed. When God Himself repented, He ceased from doing as He stated He would, "So now make good your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of Jehovah your God; and Jehovah will repent toward the evil that He has spoken against you." (Jeremiah 26:13). The law of Jehovah was written by Him and placed in a golden ark, under the seat designated for God Jehovah only, which now rests in the temple in Heaven. All conditions surrounding this covenant suggest that His laws are stable and secure and being observed in Heaven; certainly beyond the reach of all His created humans, to be maintained and honored in their original integrity and with His pure purpose.
"Then we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so also we should walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:4), this says we should walk in the newness of life, not that we would, just because we were baptized. To walk as Jesus walked should be our Christian desire and our committed goal. The question is: how must we take this walk? The gift made available to us by our baptismal commitment should be our seeking and requesting Christ's power, to walk righteously the way Christ walked during His first advent. He calls us to follow Him, "Then Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world; he following Me in no way will walk in darkness, but will be the light of life." (John 8:12). Our very first step is to desire learning of God's word and His way, as Christ walked. This brings us next to the act of exercising how to walk and to make our efforts to do righteousness, only. Jesus walked in continual righteousness to qualify Himself as the "Lamb of God", "On the morrow, John sees Jesus coming toward him, and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29), and we are to be in step with Him. And, of course, the only place to learn of this is from reading the words of Christ, which He gave to His many writers of the New and the Old Testaments, presented in God's word; it is God's book because He gave His messages to His Son to give to us, "Now they have known that all things, whatever You gave to Me, are from You" (John 17:7). In the process of reading and learning we should come to understand the direction that has been expressed in Jehovah's written word, righteousness only, "Jehovah rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands, He has repaid me." (II Samuel 22:21). This understanding is available as a gift for this activity of consuming God's word, reasoning its beauty and its necessity, to accomplish God's way in us. Once you understand the supreme superiority of God's way, which is represented in His laws and His precepts, we then should naturally want to walk in Jehovah's light and follow the way Jesus told us and showed us. This doesn't mean that we can accomplish this right way with our own ability with any success, because Satan is clever, exceptionally deceptive and convincing, we are sure to fail in following his treacherous path to God's kingdom, we need help. We are to request the strength and guidance from Christ, needed to withstand Satan's assaults, ”I am the Vine; you are the branches. He that remains in Me, and I in him, this one bears much fruit. For apart from Me, you are not able to do anything." (John 15:5) and His power is a free gift for righteousness sake. Christ is the power in our life; Jesus is the only way to our Father, Jehovah, "Jesus said to them, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one come to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6).
Not only is faith a necessary ingredient for our journey, but our desire and our effort to move by faith is necessary, there Christ will accomplish our passion for righteousness, because we know by experience, that our righteousness is a blessing to others, as their righteous acts are a blessing to us and the keeping of the laws of God are as much a pleasure as they are a necessity for our satisfaction and for our desire to please our Creator. What is so important in our journey, that isn't often mentioned from the pulpit in seeking righteousness, is our repentance, spearheaded by our sincere desire to dispose of our unrighteous acts, from our past, plus our present thoughts leading to actions. Christ called all sinners to repentance, "Therefore bring forth fruits worthy of repentance." (Matthew 3:8), "No, I say to you; but if you do not repent, you will all perish in the same way." (Luke 13:5), could repentance be applied to anything other then God's commands and laws? We should understand that any sin will not be allowed into God's pure kingdom and those holding on and cherishing a sin will not be welcomed or admitted into God Jehovah's perfect environment. There will be no other environment after the second death when Satan is destroyed forever in the Lake of Fire, except God's kingdom.
The faith we acquire in our walk now, and for our future progress toward righteousness is a gift, which is given to us for believing what we learn from God's word, this is a choice we need to make, first by opening the Book Christ gave us, reading, studying and considering all that Jehovah has given to us for guidance and to do according to what we learn of His ways. Its purist form is the original Hebrew text and the original Now Testament text (some Greek is not the original language used), but unfortunately, most only read God's word in their native language, so the purity of God's messages is sometimes altered by the process of translation, and then in some cases, a version of that translation. Correct understanding is also a gift for our individual commitment to reading God's word and for our personal desire for the truth; the more you read God's Book, the more understanding is shared with you, from the Creator and from His Christ, according to Their desired speed, one must be patient and to not rely on our own judgment.
Righteousness is our entrance into God's kingdom and this is a product of love
and love is a reaction to understanding God and His instructions, purposes and intensions
for us. The righteousness we can receive is certainly not given to everyone, nor
to every Christian. The "Book of Life" will be used in God's court to show who has
cleansed themselves by their repentance and by their accepting the sacrifice of the
Lamb. We should all know that no one can achieve righteousness without first, seeking
righteousness, "but in every nation the one fearing Him and working righteousness
is acceptable to Him." (Acts 10:35), this is an action on our part and our responsibility,
which is, keeping God's laws. Repentance is not only a regret of sin or even a hating
of our sin, it is the not the repeating of a sin, this is our choice and our effort
to make, not God's. We need to cease from transgressing God's laws, not just most
of them but all Jehovah's instructions. This may sound impossible, and it would be
on our own, but Christ can be our strength, but our desires and our decisions must
move toward righteous acts; for our sincerity and our commitment to accomplish righteousness
is what Christ is desiring from us, a change of our heart and Christ will give us
the power for our commitment to enact repentance. The hard part isn't the doing or
not doing, but the personal decision to hate the sin we once loved or didn't care
to avoid. This takes education that comes from consuming "all" of God's word, to
know and understand the beauty, justice and benefits of God's perfect laws. This
is what causes one to hunger and thirst after righteousness. This is why Christ shares
His powers with us, to be righteous for us, "Blessed are the ones doing His commands
that their authority will be over the Tree of Life, and they may enter into the city
by the gates." (Revelation 22:14) and the city spoken of is New Jerusalem. The decision
is ours. Consume all of God's word for the complete and pure view. Second hand knowledge
from another human is not completely convincing, we need to read it all for ourselves,
and this is in part, why Jehovah gave us a twenty-
It is taught in many churches that Jesus is our righteousness and what we do
beyond believing in Jesus has little effect on our salvation, but Christ paints a
different picture, "For we all must appear before the judgment-