Righteousness

Author : Titus Menezes

Pentecost is a few days away and over the next three weeks we will have teachings on Romans 14:17-18 - For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval.

This evening we begin with righteousness. This topic is covered extensively in the book of Romans. I am going to use quite a few quotes from the bible as I don’t want to give you my righteousness.

When Jesus began his ministry He said in Mark 1:15 "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

The kingdom of God is not a territory or destination; it is God’s reign in our lives right now. What is the level of God’s reign in my life? Is he increasing? It’s a slow process and lasts a lifetime

The obvious question we could have is what’s there in the kingdom of God and why should I repent and believe in the good news?

The answer to the last question is clear – there is a barrier between us and God called sin. God hates sin and unless we take that step to remove the barrier we cannot partake anything of Him.

To the question what’s there in the kingdom of God (or when God reigns in our life) this verse tells us what we can expect – righteousness, peace and joy. This is not something to be experienced in the life after life but here and now.

Don’t even for a moment think that all your troubles will be gone or you will be free from trouble. Jesus made it very clear in Jn 16:33 you will all of these and may be more but, but I have overcome it. In the midst of everything that is going on in your life you are going to experience divine righteousness, peace and joy. God is allowing all this to happen as a part of His sanctifying process.

The meaning of righteousness:

• acting in a just, upright manner; doing what is right; virtuous: a righteous man

• morally right; fair and just: a righteous act

• morally justifiable: full of righteous anger

When we refer to God’s right hand, we are speaking of His righteous hand, His uprightness.

The opposite of righteousness is wickedness.

There is a righteousness of God and a righteousness of man.

Righteousness of God – Just as God is loving, holy, merciful, gracious so also God is righteous. Righteousness is an attribute, characteristic of God. He is just. Romans 2:11 - For God shows no partiality. God has a standard and that standard cannot be changed and will not change. He has no mood swings as humans nor do weather conditions apply.

Based on His righteousness, He gave the 10 commandments. Those are His standards, His reference levels. It is because of His righteousness, He is unwilling to overlook sin because sin affects relationship with Him and with one another. He loves the sinner and will go after Him but that sin has to be surrendered.

Righteousness of man – then we have the righteousness of man. Just as God has His standard, man also has a standard, the only difference being each man has his own standard. So today we have 6 billion people on earth there are 6 billion standards or 6 billion self-righteous people. Each one according to his or her own convenience! Some have become terrorist, some fundamentalist, some abortionist, some activists and so on.

Genesis 6:5-6 - The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

Romans 3:10-18 - "There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one." "Their throats are opened graves; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of vipers is under their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Thank God I am not like those politicians. We compare our righteousness with one another. Thank God I am not like him or her, I am better than….

Romans 10:3 - For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God's righteousness.

This is where the scale is imbalanced. This imbalance came when Adam sinned. When God created man, He created him in His image and likeness. Was or is God’s image that what I just mentioned, throat with opened grave, deceiving tongue, venom, full of curses and bitterness. Then when did this come in? When man sinned and moved away from god.

Man was God’s creation and God wanted to reclaim man back to Him and that’s when He worked out a plan for the salvation of man from the clutches of satan and of sin.

Romans 5:19 - For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

The sin of Adam is inherited by every man but God’s righteousness is transferred to us when we turn from sin and accept Christ both inclusive. In banking terminology, Adam’s sin is credited to our account at birth. When we turn from sin and to Christ, sin is debited to Christ’s account. He does not leave our account at ‘0’. He credits our account with righteousness, the seed of God’s righteousness is transferred. This transfer of righteousness is called imputed righteousness. Its only by faith.

Picture yourself standing before a judge and you declare yourself ‘GUILTY’. The judge hears it and pronounces his judgment ‘NOT GUILTY’. You are set free. This is what happens in God’s court – Rom 4:5 God justifies the ungodly. God at that instant makes you the original piece He created - in His image and likeness. From original sin to original piece – in His image and likeness!

Lets look at the parable of the prodigal son. The son goes to the father and demands his share… I know everything, so let me go. He is speaking of his righteousness.

The father honors the son’s choice. And the son is on his way and after a time realizes he has landed among swines (unclean). That is the final destination when we speak of our righteousness – I know or I can do everything.

One day the son decides to returns to the father and is willing to make a confession that he has sinned against him. While he is still far away, the father notices him coming back and runs and embraces and kisses him.

He tells his servants quickly bring out the best robe, a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. You see the father is transferring something from his account to his son. This is the righteousness we receive when we turn from our sins and turn to Christ. Righteousness is transferred to you. The seed of righteousness is sowed in you. You are justified before God as if you had never sinned.

For us Catholics this happens at the time of our Baptism. We are cleansed of the sin of Adam through the water baptism but we are also anointed with the Holy Spirit for the rest of our lives. This is to carry out the sanctification in our lives on a daily basis. Our robes are surely going to get dirty again and it’s the Holy Spirit who is going to carry out the work of sanctification through the sacrament of reconciliation.

Don’t even for a minute take for granted that once you have come to Christ you have been made perfect and you can go about your life. I just made a simple diagram to explain the entire process.

SIN

Why does God give us His righteousness?

Righteousness is grace of God, a free gift. You cannot demand it, it His choice just as His mercy, love, compassion etc. God gives us His righteousness so that we do things His way. Righteousness is God’s way of doing things and so we have to submit to His plans. No longer are our plans priorities but His!

Along with this righteousness, we get certain rights, I will address four of these:

• The right to live – Jn 3:16 – those who believe in Christ will have eternal life. Till Adam sinned there was no mention of death. At sin came death. Because of Jesus we have an opportunity to live once again never to die. Jesus himself said behold I make all things new.

• The right to choose – even though God created Adam, He gave Adam the right to choose. You can eat of every tree but that one tree…. Today all of us are called to make godly choices in our lives. Subject every area of your life to discerning what the Lord wants. This is when God’s righteousness increases. Many are doing their own things because they fail to rely on God. The lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want of my own. This calls for a sheep attitude.

• The right to rule – God commanded Adam to have dominion over everything he created. Proverbs 28:1 - The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. I am not speaking of domination and submission. It is to allow God’s rule of justice in all your dealings. God should not find us at fault. You have to be a conquering Christian! I can do all things through Christ.

Lion-hearted; lamb-headed!

• The right to be fruitful – be fruitful and multiply. Its not only creation but in every area of your life – health, wisdom, knowledge……to bear the fruit of the Spirit!

These rights cannot be ours or taken for granted without the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

John 16:8-11 - And when he (Holy Spirit) comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:

• about sin, because they do not believe in me;

• about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer;

• about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

Some translations use the word convict – He will convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.

The point I want to raise here is - is the Holy Spirit convicting you of sin or of righteousness? You may say both or sin. My question to you is simple – are you a believer in Christ or unbeliever?

If you still do not believe in Jesus then He will convict you of sin but to those who believe, He will convict you of righteousness in Christ. Once you turn from sin and turn to God you are in the kingdom of God. Righteousness, peace and joy are yours forever. Satan will time and again show you your worthlessness, your past but thank God for His Holy Spirit who will show us what we are in Christ.

Once we become believers, once we are in the kingdom of God, once we are under God’s reign what have we to do?

Rom 14:17-18 - For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Paul uses the things we have to do daily to keep ourselves alive to make a point. So if you are eating and drinking don’t mistake it as even being in the kingdom of God. You have to feed on godly righteousness, peace and joy daily to keep yourself spiritually alive. It has to increase and that is what you saw in the diagram. This is how you will come more and more under God’s reign – thy kingdom come, thy will be done in my life as it is in heaven.

How are we to source this righteousness?

John 15:5 - I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.

Jn 15 is a beautiful summation of these rights.

• No branch can bear fruit of its own, so this is out

• You choose Jesus, you choose life

• Those who abide in me will bear much fruit

• That branch will outshine

Philippians 1:11 - having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

If Christ is alive in you then the fruit has to be visible. At no stage can we produce our own righteousness – that will land us with the pigs.

I want to go back to the story of the prodigal son and look at the elder son. He is angry with what the father did for the lost son. He goes on to tell his righteousness – I worked like a slave for you, I never disobeyed you yet you never gave me a goat to celebrate.

Let this state never happen in you. Being with the father, he had become complacent of the father’s righteousness and now was getting judgmental.

What is the result of following God’s righteousness?

Two things I want to share here:

First for our life here on earth - Isaiah 32:17 - The effect of righteousness will be peace (I add joy), and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. Don’t get this wrong, circumstances may not be favourable to us but we have the confidence, He will work things out for our good.

Second, after life - Malachi 3:18 - Then once more you shall see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

Mt 25:31ff – parable of sheep and goats – those who did righteous works and those who didn’t. Faith in God itself is not sufficient and will not get us peace and joy but faith accompanied by works will keep us in the kingdom and enable us to enjoy the fruit of the kingdom.

Application of righteousness

The parable of the unforgiving servant highlights this point. The servant though he had received mercy from his master for 10,000 talents, he could not forgive his fellow servant who owed him a 100 denarii. (1 talent = 6000+ denarii). When this was brought to the master he remarked Mt 18:33 - Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?

Though we may present a good image of ourselves to the outside world, we know our true selves inside. And if God has had mercy on us and shown us his righteousness how much more are we to show one another? The person may be wrong and you are justified in your action but the mercy that you have received is what you need to pass it on – be it your spouse, children, neighbours, colleagues whosoever.

The Lord’s prayer is a beautiful prayer on God’s righteousness and sums up what I have shared. Thy kingdom come – of righteousness, peace and joy, thy will be done – doing God’s things, God’s way, on earth as it is in heaven – don’t worry about the world, first it is you and I.

Give us our daily bread – simple food for the kingdom of God is not food and drink and forgive us as we forgive – the parable of the unforgiving servant and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from all evil – keep us away from sin so that God’s righteousness may grow in our life. Amen!