RIGHTEOUSNESS: TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS.

I often write when I get some light about something. When all of a sudden understanding floods my way and there is a revelation (some people call it Rhema). And then there’s when I write when I find something I’m guilty of, something I’ve got all wrong. I write to give light to myself and I share it so that others may see what I see and maybe in some way be able to apply it in their own lives as well.

These next few words encompass all these. It’s a subject I am passionate about. It’s been at the tip of my mind for many years now and understanding dawned on me today.

What is righteousness?

What is true righteousness?

Is there a false righteousness?

How do you achieve righteousness?

Who is righteous? When can a man say he is truly righteous?

WHAT IS RIGHTEOUSNESS?

Righteousness is to do right. However the world seems to have found a way to turn what is right and wrong to a debate. So I’ll give the best definition I have ever come up with. Righteousness is a lifestyle that rewards you with heaven. How does that happen? By pleasing God, so you can go on to say that Righteousness is pleasing God. So if righteousness has to be taken back to God I know of only one way to know what righteousness is and that is by reading the God’s handbook for life; the BIBLE.

*now there are many other books written by men, some true, some false that point out what righteousness is but I stick with the Bible because it’s the one book that is tried and tested and despite all efforts to kill it. It remains the most widely read book in the entire world. It’s been a best seller for all time.

There are several passages of scripture on righteousness but I will go to one that says:

Except your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees you shall in no way enter the kingdom of God.

So how could righteousness be false? It is false when the motive for doing right is wrong. RIGHTEOUSNESS STEMS FROM THE INSIDE. It is born out of the desire to please God. Our very thoughts need to be righteous before we can be righteous on the outside.

We are men, created by God. We were made by Him to live in a way. Like it or not that way is to honour Him, have you ever seen someone who created something to hurt himself? A creator creates something in a way to honour him and we are the same. The difference with us is that we are loved and out of love God gave us a soul that gives us the ability to choose, something that no other creation has been given. So our ability to choose is a gift, something given to us because at the end of this world God wants to gather to Himself a people from all nations who have chosen to honour Him.

What’s false righteousness? It looks to please men, it looks to honour itself. It looks to look good in the eyes of men. It is superficial, it is called self-righteousness. It has it all right on the outside but inside its all wrong. Its output is right but the system (mind-set) is all wrong.

Who is righteous? A righteous man is one who looks to please God. Who humbly looks to heaven and forgets every prejudice that he has got for any religion or lifestyle, asks God what he has made him for, lives by God’s laws and commandments. He is that man that chooses to do what is good and right in God’s eyes. This is what righteousness is all about. A man who has given his heart and mind to please the One who created him.

The Bible talks of two men who came to God in the temple and one were on their knees praying, the one said father I thank you that I am not as other men, I pay my tithes, I fast often, I give to the poor and the other said God I am sorry that I am a sinner and asked for forgiveness. The second is justified because He came with the motive to please God.

 

Finally, Solomon said ‘let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, fear God, keep his commandments, this is the whole duty of man’.

So to you my friend let us look in our lives and look to please God because that is the fear of God. I am guilty of the sin of not living righteously because somewhere along the line I have lost the interpretation of what righteousness really is. Let us all go back to God and ask Him what righteousness is really is.

You cannot be righteous on your because to do good is not in man, we are all sinners till we come to the cross, I see it in a child who cries because he wants his way, I see it in the teenager who struggles with his or her emotions and lets the emotions control them, I see it in the adult who knowing his days are numbered still wants to control the times, and maybe you don’t do any of these, look closely and you will see it in the little things you do every day.

Let us be careful that we do not lose the meaning of righteousness to the mere outward practices of going to church, working in the church, praying every day, sometimes five times or more, not doing what every other person does, telling people the truth or preaching, not lying or not stealing. You cannot please God in one part of your life and leave the other out and say you are righteous.

Righteousness is found in Christ, in his blood, in his word, in his power. He is the one man who all His life lived to please God(righteously) this is why he is the sacrifice for our sins.

As it is written God made him that knew no sin to be sin for us that the righteousness of God may be found in us. 

Come join me at the foot of the cross. Ask for forgiveness and for righteousness to be imparted unto us through Christ and find grace to live righteously, to be righteous is to live totally dependent on God in absolute Trust and Faith.

Search me O God, know my heart today, try me, know my thoughts, see if there is some wicked way in me and set me free.