SERIES INTRODUCTION

Faith is the substance of things hoped for: the evidence of things not seen. It is giving substance to your hope. It is the title deed to unseen realities!

Faith is the response of the human spirit to the word of God.

The reason faith doesn’t register as a real thing to the human mind is because the human mind is based on the senses. The things that are real to the human mind are the things that come through the senses – they have to come through the senses for the natural man to believe in them.

But you can also receive information from your spirit to your mind. That’s why the scripture tells us to renew our mind —to renew our thinking in line with the word of God.

This topic of righteousness is very important! It’s so vital that until you have a proper understanding of righteousness, you cannot live a true Christian life. Read these words clearly and attentively:

YOU CANNOT KNOW RIGHTEOUSNESS UNTIL YOU KNOW GOD!

That’s why in the world today, the word ‘righteousness‘ is not a subject. They don’t talk about righteousness. They may talk about doing right in respect to good and evil. But that’s all related to man’s definition of right and wrong—our moral standards. And don’t forget, this keeps changing depending on culture, or age, or time period, or gender, or relationship.

For instance, in some societies today, they voted that gay marriages are legal. This means as far as that society is concerned, gay marriages are good! In that same respect, gay marriages are illegal in many societies. If anything, gay marriages carry with them a death sentence in some countries. This means as far as those societies are concerned, gay marriages are evil!

So, right and wrong is being defined and redefined by societies for themselves. But that’s not the same with God! Don’t get it wrong: just because the majority votes that one thing is right doesn’t mean that it’s right with God. The majority is not the voice of God.

God has His voice! God has His standards! God has His kingdom! God has His choices! God has already given His opinions through Jesus Christ. He sent Jesus to show us the way. The gospel is about God’s message sent from God through Jesus to human beings: it is God revealing His mind to human beings through Jesus Christ. Because human beings never knew exactly what to do even though He revealed His will to them over and over again but they chose to misunderstand. So, God exacted His final plan of sending His message in the form of a man that looked like them. But that human being had to be separated from, untouched, and unscathed by sin. He must never have been a part of sin or connected to it in the slightest. And the only way would be that such a man, in order to be human, had to have been born of a woman. Otherwise, he would not be man because biologically, the human body is formed by, and inside of the woman.

God spoke His word to a woman named Mary, and she became pregnant through the power of the spoken word. So Jesus Christ was not like any other human being. He was human because his natural body was human. But the life in Him did not come from a man, it came directly from God.

We spoke about this when we discussed how Christians have the life of God. Jesus did not receive His life from a man otherwise He would have had Psuche. He received His life from God which meant He carried Zoe from the very first moment.

Mary didn’t have this type of life. She had her own from her father, and her human body from her mother. Every human being had it that way all the way back in time except from the very first man, Adam, because God created his human body from the dust, and he breathed a special type of life into him from the start. Which means that Adam began this type of life and every human who was born from him carried with them that same type of life.

Now in this instance, there was another kind of life given to one human being, Jesus of Nazareth. And He alone began this new type of life: same human body but different type of life. That’s why the scriptures call Jesus the second Adam; meaning that He heads another new nature of men: human body like everyone else, but the life in them is different: it originates from the word of God!

So, when we talk about righteousness, we’re talking about the nature of God. In a very abstract sense, righteousness is God’s attribute and character to be right and perfect. It is about who He is. Everything about how God thinks is always right. Everything about what God says is always right. What He does is always right because He is God! We call that the quality of rightness.

It is the rightness of God. That is righteousness

Many people quote saying, God cannot lie and that’s very true in every sense. Everything God says is truth irrespective of what reality was before He said that. If God said something that reality wasn’t at that time, it would instantly become as He said it is. If God changed the rules of science today, what He would be saying would not be a lie: it would instantly become truth because the rules of science would INSTANTLY become as He says they are!

That’s because He creates with His words. His words are the very instructions that reality obeys. Why do you think Jesus was so bold as to say,

“…I am the truth (the reality)…“—John 14:6

He didn’t say He speaks truth or reality, He said He is the very essence of reality—the very essence of truth itself! Thus, when He says, “Light, be!”, light instantly becomes!

Moses asked God what His name was. Recall how He defined Himself to be: He said, “I Am!“

What Really Is Righteousness?

Righteousness is that nature of God that defines His character and His way of doing things. It is the rightness—His attribute of always being right. This attribute, or nature of God, when imparted to the human spirit at the new birth gives him right standing.

“If by one man’s offence, death reigned by one, much more they which abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one man, Jesus Christ“—Roman 5:17

We already discussed something to this extent in our article on Who and What a Christian Really is. So, what’s the key take-away from this verse this time?

• 1. That righteousness can be received

• 2. It is a gift (It comes from Jesus)

What do we mean by this? Righteousness is the nature of God: it’s God’s ability to be right.  Now, you can’t approach God—who is always right and is completely Holy—with anything less than righteousness when you are unrighteous in totality.

To come into the presence of Almighty God who is always righteous, you must be qualified. And no man qualifies to come until he is given something that qualifies you. That’s what Abraham got.

Let’s take a look from the scriptures:

“What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.“—Romans 4:1-3

This scripture reminds us how that God made Abraham a promise, and that Abraham dared to believe God and at that moment, something happened! He believed God and that was what was credited to him as righteousness so that he and God could have covenant, and work together, and be considered partners in the plan of redemption.

“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.“—Romans 4:4

Here he says someone who has done some form of work to qualify for something has a reward of payment; their reward is a payment; not a gift: if you work for something, you are paid for that something.

“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.“—Romans 4:5

Abraham believed God (the One who justifies the ungodly). He says, this is a man who says to himself that, “I don’t qualify. I know I haven’t done right. I’m not good enough, I know. But I trust God to save me. So whatever God tells me, I accept”. He says that faith expressed towards God is counted for righteousness. He says Abraham didn’t do anything to qualify for it other than to believe God.

“Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,“—Romans 4:6

He says even David who described via prophetic revelation the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, meaning the man didn’t work for it or do anything to qualify for it, but God credits him with righteousness.

“Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.“—Romans 4:7-8

Now what does this tell us? Righteousness is imputed. And sin is imputed. It’s not about what the man did or didn’t do. If the man didn’t have to do anything for righteousness to be imputed unto him, then he didn’t have to do anything for sin to be imputed unto him.

Do you see? God isn’t looking at what you did right or wrong to say that you sinned. He’s looking at who you are. It’s about who you are: righteousness is a nature. Just as sin is a nature. That’s why he calls you a sinner from when you were born. You didn’t have to do anything wrong: it’s about your nature.

That’s why Jesus said

“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”—John 3:5

Because everyone who is born of the fallen man is born in sin. So there’s no need to look at your life and say to yourself “because I did very well this last month, I might even be better than some Christians”. That’s why Jesus came!

Let’s proceed with our scripture reading from Romans 4:

“And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;

But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;

Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.“—Romans 4:21-25

Even as I write this, I feel like just scattering everything around me in excitement. Are you seeing this? This brings us to the end of Romans 4. Let’s continue from chapter 5:

“Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.“—Romans 5:1-5

Now from this point onward, pay even closer attention:

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.“—Romans 5:6

Did you see this? It didn’t say he died for Christians. It says he died for the ungodly, right? These are they whom Jesus died for. The ungodly. If you are reading this and are ungodly, this is saying Jesus died for you.

“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.“—Romans 5:7

He says hardly anyone would die for a righteous man and maybe someone would dare to die for a good man.

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.“—Romans 5:8

He says while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. He didn’t die because we were good. He died for the ungodly.

“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.“—Romans 5:9-10

If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His son, what about now that we have come to Him? He says we shall be saved by His life. That’s why the bible says:

“Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.“—Hebrews 7:25

WHAT’S THE POINT OF ALL THESE SCRIPTURES?

It’s to let you understand what righteousness is and how it came to us. So far, we understand that righteousness is the nature of God. And from this we understand that it is a gift that has been given to the ungodly.

Now let’s take a bit of a deeper dive from this point and really look at righteousness. According to what we’ve read so far, it’s a gift, right? So, because of that we’re led to think it’s a gift given to us, Christians, right? As in, Christians have this gift of righteousness, right? But that’s not exactly accurate because this is a generic argument about the legality of righteousness as it was credited to Abraham and therefore credited to all of us who believe in Jesus Christ: If we believe, it is given to us as a gift.

But that’s not all that came to us as a gift! Let me explain from the scriptures:

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.“—Romans 6:23

Now here’s a question from this very same verse above: from everything we’ve discussed so far up until this point, is eternal life a gift given to Christians or to sinners? It’s given to sinners who believe. This is what you receive to become a Christian. If you don’t get it, you don’t become a Christian and if you don’t become a Christian, you don’t get it. This is what makes you a Christian!

A Christian is one who already has eternal life; not one who is getting the gift eternal life—When you receive the gift of eternal life into your spirit, you become a Christian!

In the exact same way, the gift of righteousness is a gift given to sinners: which is to say if you believe then you receive that gift of righteousness and thereafter you can stand in the presence of God without guilt or inferiority or condemnation. And the Bible says,

“He that believeth hath everlasting life“—John 6:47

Meaning right there, just for believing you receive eternal life and eternal life starts up in your life-At once, you have the same nature as your heavenly father. You become born again and Eternal life has started in you. So eternal life is no longer being gifted to you, rather you were born into it!

Let’s look at it more practically:

When you were born of your mother into this physical world, were you given the gift of life? Hard to answer, right? But look at it this way: you weren’t there. Even after being born, you probably didn’t become self-conscious or self-aware until a couple years later. You weren’t there to have consciously requested for and received this “gift” of life. You were born into this life: your choice in the matter wasn’t part of the equation of whether to bring you into this world. You happened! You came with life!

So where am I going with this? Abraham was given the gift of righteousness. He wasn’t born into it. He was given righteousness consciously and deliberately. It was credited to him. So, within his lifetime (from the time he was born until the time of his birth), you can track the points when he had righteousness and when he didn’t have righteousness because at one point, he didn’t have it, then it was gifted to him and the next moment he had it because of that same gift.

Now what we’ve discussed so far about righteousness is the Legal Aspect of righteousness: Paul explains how it was credited to us from a legal standpoint. This is the legal argument of our salvation that we spoke about in our article on Who and What a Christian Is Part 6—Sons of God. This is the legal argument.

But that’s not the same with us. We were born into righteousness. As far as we’re concerned, we didn’t receive it as a gift; we were born with it. As born-again Christians, we didn’t have a choice in whether we had righteousness. It came with the life the day we got born again. We were born righteous. In the same way you weren’t given the gift of life to become you human, you were born human. The exact same thing.

This is what we spoke about in our first discussion about righteousness and being sons of God: there is a legal side and a vital side. So, you have to understand the argument: There is the legal side of God’s word—the legal side of our redemption. And that’s what Paul is presenting here: the legal side to righteousness and how that came to be. He isn’t talking about the new creation from 2 Corinthians 5:17 that we are today. He’s not talking about us. He is looking at it in generic terminology when he says ‘we’.

But when you read further, you start to notice and understand John’s language and what he was saying: God’s righteousness is God’s nature of rightness; it’s His nature of Grace; it’s His nature of perfection; His nature of excellence; His nature of Holiness! His nature of being good!

That’s why when they called “good master” in Luke 18:18, he said not to call Him good, because no one is good but God, and until they knew that He’s God, they couldn’t call Him good. And when they finally knew who He was and that He was co-equal with God when He said He was the Son of God, they picked up stone: because to say you are the Son of God means you are co-equal with God: it meant He was the human kind of God: meaning God in flesh.

“For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” —Romans 5:17-18

Look at the language

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.“—Romans 5:19-21

I so wish I had time for this but I’ll resist the urge. But what we have here among many things is that God’s plan is for His grace to reign. Here, he is not talking about man’s change; rather he is talking about God’s response to man’s sin. Here God is saying, no matter how great man’s sin is, His grace is greater than man’s sin! So, righteousness is God’s gift to change men’s lives.

That was legal: that’s the legal aspect of our sonship. But by the new birth, it is now vital!

So, when you’re born again, you’re not operating under legal righteousness: you’re operating under vital righteousness which means you are actually righteous with the righteousness of God.

So, what does that mean?

“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;”—Hebrews 1:1-2

This means Jesus inherits all things: which means everything owned by God is owned by Jesus,

“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power,

when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:”—Hebrews 1:3

First, this shows that Jesus is the brightness of God’s glory. And that He is also the express image of God’s person. I wonder what this means.

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.“—2 Corinthians 5:21

What does this mean?

In Hebrews we saw how that Jesus is the express image of the Father: the effulgence of His glory. Now here He tells us who we are: not only were we born righteous in his presence, but he says we are His righteousness.

We often quote this verse to say Jesus took on our sin and became the sacrifice for our sin. But that’s just one part of it: it says Jesus actually became the very concept of sin itself—because He became so identified with sin.

When Adam sinned, sin was imputed into him and everyone who was born of him. Which means according to God, as far as He was concerned, when we were born not only were we sinners, but we were sin itself.

Now God takes all of what you were, and He put on Jesus on the cross. That’s why when that happened on the cross, the Father in the spirit turned. His back on Jesus: Because the Bible says, God does not look at sin. Understand this: the act of sin, and sin itself are two different things. Otherwise, every time you commit a sin, God would turn his back on you.

So, no, he’s not talking about the act of sin, he’s talking about the nature of sin. The act of sin is only a result of the nature of sin. Which means God doesn’t turn his back on you for your actions of sin, He already had His back turned away from you for your nature of sin because of who you are!

But then he commanded his love toward us, that even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So how does God look at the world today? He looks at Jesus! Jesus died for everyone. So, is God counting man’s sin against him anymore? No! Meaning He doesn’t need to turn his back on every individual who’s a sinner because He already turned his back on Jesus when Jesus took the place for every sinner that has ever been born, or that will ever be born to this world!

So not only have I been made righteous as a result of what Jesus did, but I’m also the expression of His righteousness! I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus: this is the Christian walk! That’s our responsibility as children of God. We are the expression of His righteousness: which means we are the ones expressing his nature to men: we think and talk righteousness. We exude it!

CONCLUSION

I sincerely hope you see now, why I reserved this discussion on righteousness for a dedicated series on its own? It’s because of how important this topic is, how greatly it is misunderstood, and how much there is to unpack on this topic.

So far in this article, we have discussed the legal aspect to righteousness and how that came to be. In the next and final part of this article series, we discuss the vital side of our righteousness: the side of righteousness we actually have as Christians and Sons of God.

Thanks for reading. See you all in the next article.