Righteousness Given

Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. (Matthew 3:15 NIV)

Righteousness is a strange word.  It's used quite a bit throughout the Bible.  It's important to understand because it has to do with our walk together with God.  When Jesus was baptized, it was to "fulfill all righteousness."  This means he had to do in order to walk together with God.  It was what God considered right for his life.  It's a good thing he did it, too, because God opened up the heavens and everyone there got to hear God saying that Jesus was His son, in whom He was pleased.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (Matthew 5:6 NIV)

We should be pursuing righteousness as well.  That means we should be learning the will of God in our lives and then doing it, no matter what.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10 NIV)

Sometimes it will be easy to walk together with God.  Other times it will be difficult.  In the end, though, the benefits and blessings far outweigh the work and pain.  In the end, all pain and suffering will be gone and we will be with a Father who loves us - all because we chose here to walk together with God.

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20 NIV)

Walking with God can be tricky, though.  Sometimes we get confused.  Sometimes we don't know what God wants.  Sometimes the other "voices" drown out God's voice.  Sometimes we just don't do what God says, even though we hear Him loud and clear.

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. (Romans 2:5 NIV)

This is bad news for our walk together with God.  We should have lived a life of righteousness, but instead we live a life that deserves punishment when God uses righteousness as the standard for judging us.

For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Romans 2:13 NIV)

Knowing God's will is only the start.  Living it out is considered right.  I haven't done that perfectly.  Have you?

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Romans 3:20 NIV)

This is where we learn about a great aspect of God's righteousness.  God offers to give us righteousness as a gift, if we want to accept it.  We weren't good enough to be together with God on our own, but God offers us a way to be made right again.

This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:22-24 NIV)

This is righteousness given.  It's a gift.  It isn't earned.  It is a part of Christ's work on the cross.  Because we were not right with God, we are made right with God through the one who was already right with God: Jesus Christ.

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19 NIV)

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. (1 Peter 3:18 NIV)

This is a great gift.  It's just like the prodigal son returning home to his father.  He didn't live right but his father decided to make everything right between them.  The father's forgiveness was a gift.  Their relationship was reconciled.  They were together again.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:18-21 NIV)

Now we are home and we have reconciled with God.  God treats us as though everything is all right.  And it is.  Shouldn't we show God how grateful we are for making us right again?

"He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed." For "you were like sheep going astray," but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:24-25 NIV)

How about you?  Have you been made right with God?  Have you received God's gift of righteousness?  Are you ready to live a life moving toward righteousness?