Two kinds of righteousness are available to men:
- God’s righteousness and
- Self-righteousness (Man’s righteousness).
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
Though very religious and zealous for God, the children of Israel would not receive or submit to God’s righteousness because of their ignorance. Instead, they were seeking to establish their own righteousness.
Similarly, some religious and zealous people today are ignorant of God’s righteousness, seeking and striving relentlessly to establish their righteousness.
- How is God’s righteousness different from Man’s righteousness?
- The Scripture points out the differences between God’s and Man’s righteousness.
First, God’s righteousness is not based on works, but Man’s righteousness is based on works.
God’s righteousness is apart from the law. You cannot attain God’s righteousness by the works of the law but simply by faith in Christ and His finished work. No man can be justified or declared righteous by striving to keep the law in God’s sight. God’s righteousness is purely a gift of grace!
Paul aptly states and explains this truth. Romans 3:21-23 – NKJV
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Though very religious and zealous for God, Israel could not attain God’s righteousness because they would not recognize it as a gift of God and receive it by faith in Christ and His finished work (Rom. 9:30-32).
Although the grace of God has made God’s righteousness available to all humankind, it is only credited to and bestowed upon those who put their faith in Christ and His finished work and not in themselves or their good works. God’s righteousness is also called “the righteousness of faith.”
While God’s righteousness is purely based on the finished work of Jesus Christ, Man’s righteousness is purely based on his good works or holy acts (Romans. 4:1-5).
Our righteousness refers to all the acts of holiness we do to fulfill the commands of the Old Testament Law. This kind of righteousness is based on our performance or works of the law. It is unreliable and inconsistent. Why?
Because no man can entirely and continually keep God’s law without stumbling at one point!
Therefore, it is foolishness for anyone to rely on his righteousness as a basis for receiving God’s blessings.
Second, God’s righteousness is perfect, constant, and everlasting, but Man’s righteousness is imperfect, fluctuating, and temporal.
God’s righteousness is perfect, constant, enduring, unchanging, or everlasting because of God’s nature. God can’t change (Mal. 3:6, Psalm. 119:142)!
The Psalmist attests to this truth. Psalms 36:5-6 – NKJV
5 Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep; O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
There is no unrighteousness in God; He will never do unrighteousness. Prophet Zephaniah assures God’s people that God will do no unrighteousness.
Zephaniah 3:5 – NKJV
5 The LORD is righteous in her midst, He will do no unrighteousness. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He never fails, But the unjust knows no shame.
Therefore, having received God’s righteousness by faith in Christ and His finished work, you are always righteous, holy, blameless, and above reproach in God’s sight. You will never lose your God-imputed righteousness or right standing before God (Col. 1:21-22).
On the contrary, man’s righteousness fluctuates and is unstable or temporal because it is based on man’s imperfect nature and works. The problem is not with our good works or righteous acts, but with the sinful nature we inherited at a natural birth. We were all born sinners with impure, imperfect, sinful, and depraved nature (Rom. 5:19).
Therefore, nothing can come out of us that can be pure, perfect, and pleasant in God’s sight.
Job queries, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!” (Job 14:4 NKJV).
Bildad also queries, “How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?” (Job 25:4 NKJV).
Third, God’s righteousness is like a white, clean, and bright garment, but Man’s righteousness is like a filthy and stinking rag in God’s sight.
You were covered entirely with God’s everlasting righteousness as a white, clean, and bright robe at the point of new birth. Isaiah saw this ahead and prophesied about it.
Isaiah 61:10 – NKJV
10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
The book of Revelation reveals that the triumphant Church would be arrayed in fine, clean, and white linen, the righteousness of the saints received by faith in Christ Jesus (Rev. 19:7-9).
On the contrary, man’s righteousness is like a filthy and stinky rag in God’s sight. Therefore, anyone who approaches God based on his righteousness, which is according to the works of the law, is wearing a dirty, filthy, and stinky rag and will not be able to stand in God’s holy presence without shame.
Isaiah 64:6 – NKJV
6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
Friend, to receive God’s righteousness, you must first despise and discard your righteousness like a filthy and stinky rag before God and then put your trust entirely in Christ and His finished work. Why?
Because it is impossible to trust in your righteousness and God’s righteousness simultaneously as a basis for having a relationship with God!
If you are still seeking to earn God’s love, acceptance, favor, or blessing through your performance, good works, or holy actions, you are simply despising and rejecting God’s righteousness, which is a gift.
You cannot add or mix God’s righteousness with your righteousness. It must be one or the other. Either you come before God based on Christ’s perfect and finished work of redemption or your own imperfect and inadequate good works or righteous deeds.
Beloved, stop boasting in your own imperfect and unstable righteousness or striving to establish your righteousness; instead, resolve not to cling to your righteousness in God’s sight, like Paul, who decided to “be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.” (Philip. 3:9 NKJV).
Prayer:
Dear Holy Spirit, teach and help me daily to rejoice and boast in God’s righteousness, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Our mandate is to Preserving the faith of the Apostolic Generation.
Eniyekpemi Fidelis Oyinpreyebi.
AWH, Blogs.
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