Righteousness is the perfect righteousness of Christ. It is an essential attribute to the character of God. It literally means “One who is right”. Think of it as the polar opposite of sin. To commit sin is to go against God’s design for our lives. Righteousness is the only living standard that is acceptable for us to stand before the heavenly Father.
Even when our good deeds seem to be
performed from the purest of motives, unless that motivation is to glorify the
name of Jesus, those deeds are completely self-righteous and sinful. For
instance, modifying my behavior to stop using certain language was actually a
self-righteous act because the real motivation wasn’t out of conviction from
the Holy Spirit, but to simply appear more holy to others.
The Bible clearly defines
righteousness as something His people should pursue. We are unable to produce
it. Our righteousness is from Jesus through His atoning work on the cross. We
couldn’t produce it, Christ produced it for us. To pursue righteousness means
to turn away from your natural, sinful desires, and turn to Christ perfect and
righteous ways. We know that God sovereignly works everything for the good of
His people including restoring us through the righteousness of His Son. Our
righteousness began in Christ and is completed in Christ.
I’m
convinced most Christians don’t have a very good understanding of how God sees
us. God sees us so differently from the way we see ourselves and the way others
see us that there’s really no comparison. We often see ourselves from our past
experience, but He has chosen to see us now as we will be in the future when
we’re with Him forever. Let’s take a moment to understand how to pursue righteousness:
1.
Disconnect From the World to Live a Righteous Life-“Do not
be conformed to this world.” (Romans 12:2, ESV)
The
Bible warns us that there should be a
definite line drawn between us and the world. That means our thoughts; actions,
words, and behaviors should be noticeably different. We should look like Jesus. Sadly,
most Christians go to church and act nicely on Sunday. Then live like the world
the rest of the week. This should not be. A lot of not living like the world
has to do with what we’re feeding on. If you spend most of your time feasting
on the secular media, will have an effect on you (whether you believe it or not).
If we want to live a holy life, we must often be disconnected from the world
and its ways, and connected to God and His ways.
Righteousness
isn’t a scary thing that only a few people achieve. Everyone in the Body of
Christ should walk in righteousness. We have been given the robe of
righteousness, but we have to maintain it. We have the Holy Spirit living
inside us for that purpose. He directs us in righteousness.
2.
Flee from Temptation to live a Righteous Life-“Flee
the evil desires.” (2 Timothy 2:22, NIV)
You
can resist any temptation that comes your way. Did you know that? We’ve got
power. Whose job is it to keep ourselves pure, or to straighten out things that
are displeasing to God in our lives? Are we to flee from temptation? Is God
responsible for that? Was He responsible for Adam and Eve when they disobeyed
Him in the garden? No. He told them exactly what to do. But they had a choice,
and they knew what they were doing.
We
have a choice, too. We’re God’s temples. When our flesh rises up, the Bible
says to crucify it.That means you don’t let your flesh live
any way it wants to live. When it wants to do or say things it shouldn’t do or
say, you say, “Body, shut up. You are not going there. You are not doing that.
I don’t even want to hear that.” It isn’t a sin to be tempted.
Sin is yielding to and acting on it. When
temptation comes, it’s often a thought that seems to come out of left field.
That is just the devil seeing if you’ll go for it. So, what do you do when that
happens? You say, “I reprimand you in the Name of Jesus, Satan. You get out of
here.”
3. Obey the Word of God
to Live a Righteous Life-“Be holy in all you do.” (1 Peter 1:15, NIV)
As
we’ve already discovered, righteousness simply means separated to God. It’s
what you do with your life day by day. It’s ordering your conduct according to
the Word of God and the promptings of the Holy Spirit. If you’re separated to
God, you will obey His Word not just some of the time when it’s convenient.
If you are living separated to God, you will stand out. Many people are born
again, but they never disconnect from their old lives.
They
never spend enough time hearing from God, reading the Word for themselves,
praying, or learning how to listen to the Holy Spirit within themselves. The
change on the outside is what enables you to walk free. It’s when you change on
the outside that you experience the blessings of God. When you change on the
outside, you experience all that God provided for you when He saved you.
That’s
when you will walk in righteousness. Obeying the Word is the same today as it
has always been. Sin hasn’t changed; God’s commandments haven’t changed. The
world, society and what is deemed acceptable is always changing. So, to
live a holy life, we don’t go by what the world says is good and right. We
don’t call evil good and good evil.
We keep ourselves on God’s side by obeying His Word.
“Nothing that man ever invents will absolve him from the universal necessity of being good as God is good, righteous as God is righteous and holy as God is holy.” (Charles Kingsley)[i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“3 Ways to Live a Holy Life” by Kenneth Copeland Ministries
·
“5 Things You Should Know
About How God Sees You”
·
“What Does it Mean to be Righteous?” by Topher Haddox
·
The topic of this post
was suggested by my wife, Bobbi
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