What Makes Us Right With God?

 

I’ve written before about how Christianity can be confusing. The confusion comes primarily from those of us who profess to be Christians, not really from the Bible itself. The Bible is pretty clear. But sometimes it does sound like Christianity is a list of behaviors, which if we follow we are in the “club”.

One such confusion can come from what it means to be “righteous”. The Bible speaks a lot about God loving, saving, helping the righteous. And there are Scripture passages that might lead someone to believe you can attain righteousness by doing something – behaving in a certain way, avoiding certain behaviors, whatever. And once you've achieved "righteousness" God will love, help and save you.

The Oxford Dictionary offers this definition of righteousness: the quality of being morally right or justifiable. This would include right conduct and sometimes is taken to mean moral excellence.

The Bible seems to define righteousness as living according to God’s character: holiness, purity, uprightness. The Ten Commandments would be another reference to what behaviors God expects in a righteous person. Proverbs presents righteousness as something to pursue (see Proverbs 15:9, 21:3, 21:21). In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)

 “Happy people are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They want to be right with God. They want to walk with God. They long for these things. That is where happiness will come from—not from the things of this world.” (Philip Wijaya, Ph.D. https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-is-righteousness.html)  So, can we somehow do some specific things to find this happiness, and achieve righteousness?  Can we just be good people, morally living our lives best we can and consider ourselves righteous?

Unfortunately, the Bible also teaches that there are none who are righteous, at least not righteous in the way God demands. We are pretty good at being right in our own eyes. But the Bible is very clear, in both Old and New Testaments) that we are incapable of being totally righteous. (see Psalms 14:1-3; Romans 3:10-18). We can try as hard as we want, but we always fall short. We may wish to live lives that reflect God’s character, but always end up failing. We can also be satisfied that we are ‘good enough’, and fool ourselves into thinking we are righteous.

Abraham was a man called by God, and he followed (story begins in Genesis 12). Abraham left all he knew and followed God’s lead. Abraham is referred to as a righteous man. But Abraham was far from perfect. The Bible teaches that Abraham had righteousness credited to him. How? Why? Because he believed God and followed Him. Romans 4:3 says “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”  It wasn’t a perfect, sinless life, but a gift, given because Abraham believed, even if his belief was shaky and imperfect.

All of this centers around Jesus, God’s grace gift to sinners. There are none, on their own accord, who are righteous. All have sinned and fall short of God’s standard. All are helpless to do any kind of good works to make up for the deficit. Maybe by human standards we appear to be very righteous, but God’s standard is a bit higher. The good news is God, in His love for His creation, made a way possible to do the impossible. He paid the penalty for our sin, dying in our place, so if we place our faith in Him, we too are credited with righteousness. Righteousness, being right with God, is a gift given to all who believe. We can show God’s character in our lives. It’s like a bank account that is empty, in deficit even, and someone comes along and puts undeserved, unearned money into our account. God’s grace declares us in the black, righteous!

In Psalms 36:5-10 it says How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart.

This could be a passage where it seems like God gives his righteousness to those who are upright, already righteous. But note that it says “upright in heart”. I may be unable to live a sinless, perfect life, but I can desire so in my heart. My heart can be righteous with the righteousness given to me in my belief. Sometimes my actions will reflect that righteousness. Sometimes they do not. But it’s there, because I believed God, and He put righteousness in my heart. 

Instead of relying on my imperfect character to do right in the world, I need to learn to rely on God to live his righteousness out through me.  Romans 8:1-4 speaks of the “righteous requirements of the law” (think Ten Commandments) being live out, not by us, but through us. That is a huge burden lifted from our shoulders. Yes, Christians are to behave in a way that reflects God’s character, but we are not ask to create that character ourselves. We can’t and only get frustrated trying (so we try to cover up our inadequacies by becoming even more legalistic and confusing non-believers regarding what Christianity really is). If we let God bear His fruit through us, then people see God in us.

The legalistic, hypocritical striving to seem perfect, sinless by Christians has turned away many seeking God. If being a Christian means behaving in certain ways – then the failure to do so makes Christianity seem impossible if not unbelievable. God has never asked us to be righteous of our own accord. He asks us to open our lives up to Him, receive His free gift of forgiveness and righteousness, and live out His character by His strength, not our own.

Christianity is not a good works, rigid, behavior based religion. That is a total misconception. Christianity is a fluid and growing relationship with our Creator, Who loved us enough to pay the penalty for our brokenness and make us whole. The burden isn’t on us because He took it on Himself. Our job, like Abraham, is to step out in faith, believe God’s promise, and receive His gift of righteousness.