What Is Righteousness? I. Introduction A. Righteousness: a concept treated flippantly or overly seriously 1. A staple of 80s slang: “that wave was righteous.” Everything seemed righteous then... 2. Righteousness also associated with Jesus and Christianity, and generally in a dour, somber, serious way: priests, monks, nuns, saints, guys in suits, women in plain dresses, etc. B. But what is righteousness according to what God has made known in Christ and through the pages of Scripture? 1. How is righteousness defined, and on what basis? 2. Can we be righteous? On what basis? 3. What does it mean to live according to righteousness? How does that happen? II. What Is Righteousness? A. Righteousness: “the quality of being morally right or justifiable” (Internet dictionary) 1. Merriam-Webster maintains the “Christian” definition of “righteous,” “acting in accord with divine or moral law; free from guilt or sin,” as primary 2. Secondary definitions include “morally right or justifiable,” “arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality” B. Hebrew tzadiq translates to righteousness; often paired with shaphat, justice (e.g. Genesis 18:19) C. Greek dikaiosune 1. Thayer’s first definition: “in a broad sense: state of him who is as he ought to be, righteousness, the condition acceptable to God” a. “The doctrine concerning the way in which man may attain a state approved of God” b. “Integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting” 2. Second definition: “in a narrower sense, justice or the virtue which gives each his due” 3. Whereas in Hebrew justice and righteousness would often be paired as separate terms, in the New Testament, both are subsumed under dikaiosune 4. We thus must be careful when reading “righteousness” in the New Testament in ways that might stand independently of “justice”; very often either term could be used and the translation valid D. Righteousness, therefore, includes both the substance of thinking, feeling, and doing right things and the standing of being acceptable before God E. We will seek to untangle these as we proceed III. What Is the Standard of Righteousness? A. When we speak about righteousness in terms of thought, feeling, and action, we must be very clear about the standard we should use to assess whether any given thought, feeling, or action is consistent with righteousness or contrary to it B. After all, “acting in accordance with moral law” according to whom? C. In modern culture, many different standards are proposed 1. Many look to the laws of our nation on a municipal, county, state, and federal level to establish righteousness 2. Others look to philosophy or even to themselves 3. Others seek the standard of various religions D. But how well do these standards hold up? 1. How often are laws changed in cities, counties, states, and the country as a whole? Beyond that, these laws may declare things that are wrong, but are they intended to prohibit every wrong thing? Could they? 2. On what basis can philosophy or a person themselves be authoritative in terms of righteousness? They invariably end up being grounded in perceived natural law, perceived general consensus, what society and culture has already inculcated, etc., and vary considerably throughout time and place! 3. While one might find many commonalities among religions and their writings, there are also plenty of differences! E. According to the Bible God, who is our Creator, is righteous, and His instruction is righteous 1. Consider the logic of Psalm 33:3-14: YHWH loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His hesed (covenant loyalty); He is its Creator, and spoke it into existence 2. Psalm 119:1-176 exalts YHWH’s instruction F. Thus God, as Creator of heaven and earth, He who loves justice and righteousness and whose authority is built upon it, defines what is right and good G. But what is God’s standard of righteousness? H. Many appeal to the Torah, the Law, as in Psalm 119:1-176, as that standard 1. For good reason; God gave His Law to Israel for them to follow (Deuteronomy 6:1-3) 2. The Law was righteous and holy (Romans 7:12) I. And yet the Law was insufficient to bring true righteousness; none can be made righteous by works of the Law (Romans 3:1-20) 1. As Paul strains to argue in Romans 7:12ff, the problem was not the Law, but sin 2. By sinning people transgressed the Law, and the Law on its own merits could not make righteous those who transgressed against it (cf. Romans 5:12-21) J. And so God sent His Son to proclaim what is right and good, die for our sin, but importantly, to embody the character of God and godliness (Hebrews 1:1-3, 7:1-9:28) 1. Such is behind John 14:6-9: Jesus is the truth, the way, and the life, because He is the embodiment of the character of the Father 2. Thus, if God defines holiness, and Jesus is the embodiment of God and His character, then we can understand true holiness in terms of Jesus (thus 1 Corinthians 11:1, 1 John 2:3-6) K. Thus we can approach the writings of the New Testament as the practical outworking of how we can follow God in Christ and manifest true righteousness in terms of how Jesus thought, felt, and acted 1. Consider how Paul frames Philippians 2:1-12 in terms of Jesus as example 2. We often appeal to the fruit of the Spirit as the manifestation of righteousness, and for good reason: it’s a coherent list of characteristics which the Christian ought to embody (Galatians 5:17-24) 3. We do well to note how righteousness is not merely about deeds, but first and foremost about thought and disposition which are to lead to deeds a. Love, joy, patience, or humility are not things one “does” as much as one thinks and feels and which gets manifested in actions b. This is a core lesson of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-7:29): Jesus would like for all to recognize that actions derive from thoughts and feelings, and thoughts and feelings can be as much sin or unrighteousness as actions (cf. Mark 7:14-23) 4. The fruit of the Spirit is singular; it is manifested in the various characteristics, but must be taken as a whole, not merely in part 5. Furthermore, the fruit of the Spirit does not exist in a vacuum; we are to manifest its characteristics in our lives as Christ did in His 6. And so: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; to which we can add humility (Galatians 5:22-23, 1 Peter 5:5) a. Love as seeking the best interest of the beloved (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:1-8) b. Joy not as the emotion but as contentment regardless of circumstance (cf. Philippians 4:4) c. Peace not as mere absence of hostility but its elimination (Ephesians 2:11-18) d. Patience truly as longsuffering, able to suffer long (cf. Ephesians 4:2) e. Kindness as disposition toward others to do good for them (Galatians 6:10, Colossians 3:10) f. Faithfulness as full of faith in God but also as trustworthy or dependable oneself (Acts 6:5, 2 Thessalonians 3:3) g. Meekness as strength under control (1 Timothy 6:11) h. Self-control exactly that, keeping one’s faculties under discipline (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) i. Humility not as thinking less of oneself but as having an accurate assessment of one’s standing before God and others: as no better or worse than any other human, as a creation of God (Philippians 2:5-11) 7. And who is the model of these characteristics? How should we apply them? As Christ did! a. We are to love others as Christ has loved us (1 John 4:7-21) b. We are to be humble as Christ showed us (Philippians 2:5-11) c. Jesus endured the cross on account of the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:1-2) d. Jesus accomplished peace through His death on the cross (Ephesians 2:11-18) e. We could carry on in the same vein throughout: each characteristic of righteousness is modeled in Jesus! L. We do well also to note James 4:17: if we know the right thing to do, but do not do it, it is sin; righteousness is not just in terms of knowing the right, but also doing it! M. Thus righteousness, in terms of the right things to think, feel, and do, is not a sterile disembodied list of what to do but characteristics grounded in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, and a way forward for us to follow! III. Being Made Righteous A. We have seen that righteousness is a set of characteristics which Jesus embodied for us as a pattern for us to follow B. Yet, as we noted at the beginning, another aspect of righteousness is based in righteous standing: how can we be considered as righteous before God? C. Throughout time most people have associated being righteous with doing right things 1. A logical concept, and theoretically sound 2. The righteous person would think, feel, and do what is right! D. The problem, however, is that all have sinned, and fallen short of God’s glory: no one save Jesus has ever done all the right (Romans 3:1-23) 1. For this reason Paul declared none of us can be justified, or gain righteous standing before God, on the basis of works of the Law (Romans 3:23) 2. Such will be true on the basis of any code of conduct as seen in James 2:9-10: once you have transgressed once, the law will declare you a transgressor regardless of how well other obligations were met E. And so Paul sets forth in Romans 3:21-5:21 and Galatians 3:1-29 that the only way we can stand before God as righteous is by our faith (trust) in Jesus, who secured that justification for us through offering Himself on the cross for our sins 1. All of us stand before God as transgressors 2. Jesus died for our sins, suffering on our behalf (John 1:29, Hebrews 7:1-9:28) 3. When we trust in Jesus for forgiveness, God forgives us our sins, and we are reckoned as righteous before God (Romans 4:6-8, 1 John 1:7) F. This is not an imposition or imputation; righteousness is not a gas 1. There is no quality transferred in this instance 2. Key concept is reckoning, as in an accounting metaphor: God reckons as righteous, which does not mean that Jesus’ righteousness is “imputed” or “granted” to the believer 3. Jesus’ righteousness remains His own; our righteousness is only by reckoning as cleansed G. Thus we can only be declared righteous by God on the basis of what God has done for us in Jesus and our trust in Jesus: it is not something we accomplish on our own; it is not something we have earned or deserved; it cannot be found or maintained independently or separate from being in God in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9)! IV. Living Righteously A. We have seen the characteristics of righteousness which we are to embody are found in Christ, and yet we have seen that our righteous standing before God is not something we have earned or deserved but freely given as a gift by God through Christ B. Perhaps you can even see the tension: we are to be righteous, and live righteously, and our standing as righteous before God is because of our faith and not because of anything we have earned or deserved; so how can we live righteously? C. It would be easy to assume that now since we have been forgiven in Christ, we can engage in our own moral striving and all should be well; since the past has been addressed, now we can live righteously! 1. And yet we continually fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23); sin is a continual presence because of our weakness (1 John 1:7) 2. Isaiah, a member of the covenant people of God, declared that the righteousness of the people of God were as a “polluted garment,” literally a menstrual rag, in Isaiah 64:6! 3. Even if we give some space for hyperbole, and the wretched condition of Israel at the time, but it still does not speak well! 4. Where would we get the impression from the New Testament that by our own unaided efforts we are going to be more successful at practicing righteousness after becoming a Christian than before? D. Not for nothing does the New Testament emphasize that we will be empowered to live righteously not merely by our own efforts but also through the strength and power of God in Christ 1. Philippians 4:13, after all! 2. Also Galatians 2:20-21, Ephesians 3:14-21, 6:10-18, 6:10-18 3. This is understood by Jesus in the logic of the vine and the branches (John 15:1-9): to be fruitful in righteousness, the Christian must be connected to Christ E. This is not to deny the role we have in volition (cf. Romans 6:14-23); we must strive ourselves toward righteousness, but cannot presume to achieve it through our own unaided efforts! F. This whole process spoken of as sanctification, to be made holy 1. God’s will is our sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7) 2. To be sanctified is to be made holy, holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:13-16) 3. A process of character refinement: 1 Peter 1:3-9, 2 Peter 1:5-8 4. Jesus prayed that God would sanctify believers in the truth (John 17:17) G. None of this can be addressed without reference to the Holy Spirit 1. The Holy Spirit as the One who sanctifies: Romans 15:16, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Peter 1:1 2. All those characteristics we mentioned earlier were not called the fruit of the Spirit for nothing (Galatians 5:17-24) 3. We are to walk by the Spirit, not the flesh (Romans 8:1-9) 4. When discussing the working of the church as the body of Christ, Paul makes constant reference to the work of the Spirit; yes, much involves miraculous gifts no longer given, but plenty remain (1 Corinthians 12:1-13:13) 5. In Galatians 3:1-3 Paul makes explicit contrast between striving unto maturity in the faith in terms of the Spirit vs. according to works of the Law 6. The means by which we are strengthened by God is His Spirit within us (Ephesians 3:16) 7. We are to be filled with the Spirit, not drunk on alcohol (Ephesians 5:18) 8. Christianity as participation in the Spirit (Philippians 2:1) 9. We could go on and on; the locus of the holiness process is without a doubt in the Spirit, and energized and empowered by Him! H. Such may provide some consternation to theology, but we should be able to recognize that God will work through His Spirit to empower us to live righteously and we are to commit ourselves, mind, heart, and soul, to pursue righteousness; these are not mutually exclusive, and to suggest one without the other would lead to neglect of many a Scripture! 1. Expecting the Spirit to do all the work and believers to have no role is faith without works, condemned in James 2:14-26; if this were to be the case, what was wrong with Israel according to the flesh? 2. Yet expecting all the work to be done by the believer with no help or strength from God through the Spirit would mean we would participate in moral striving not unlike what Israel tried and failed to do and what we tried and failed to do without Christ; is this really what God is after? By no means! I. And so, once reckoned as righteous through our faith in Christ, the believer can begin to strive in the Spirit unto all the substance of righteousness as seen in the fruit of the Spirit, empowered by that Spirit to accomplish it V. Conclusion A. We have considered righteousness B. The substance of righteousness is that which we have seen manifest in Jesus of Nazareth, the embodiment of God’s character, described by humility and the fruit of the Spirit C. Our righteous standing before God is not rooted in anything we have done but in the love, grace, and mercy of God expressed through Jesus and His death for our sins D. We do well to strive to embody the fruit of the Spirit, following the ways of God in Christ, while recognizing our dependence on God’s strength and sustenance unto sanctification, holiness, and righteousness E. May we trust in God in Christ so as to stand righteous, and live righteously in the Spirit of our God! F. Invitation Scripture, Meditation, and Application 1: “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). Righteousness features two elements. The substance of righteousness involves the right things to think, feel, and do. Righteousness also refers to right standing before God or others. Whereas Hebrew has two words for righteousness and justice, Greek tends to use one. “Righteousness” and “justice” are thus intertwined in the New Testament and in Christianity. May we hunger and thirst for righteousness in God in Christ! 2: [The Son], who being the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3). God is our Creator and established the world in justice and righteousness. God therefore defines what is right and holy. In Jesus we find the character of God embodied; Jesus is the model for righteousness for us. May we follow the Lord Jesus and emulate His righteousness! 3: For the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26). The Scriptures are unambiguous: we cannot be justified, or made righteous, based on works of the Law before God. We have all transgressed God’s law; thus, the Law condemns us as sinners. We can only be reckoned as righteous through faith in God in Christ for what was done on the cross. Only when we trust in Jesus can we obtain right standing before God. May we trust in Jesus and seek His purposes! 4: But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, for that God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:13). Growth in righteousness is understood as the sanctification process. To be sanctified is to be made holy. We are to pursue righteousness and holiness. Yet our unaided striving will get us no further now than it did before. We must manifest the fruit of the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, empowered and strengthened in the Spirit by God. May we trust in God in Christ, seek righteousness and power from God to accomplish it, and be saved!