THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD, Part 2

Mark Warda

Woodland Church

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Righteous (Merriam Webster’s Dictionary)

1. acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin.

The word “righteousness” comes from the root word that means “straightness.”

It refers to a state that conforms to an authoritative standard.

“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”  (John 1:23, ESV)

“This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. … As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”  (Romans 1:17, NLT)

Because Jesus lived a perfect,, sinless life, when we, by faith, accept Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, God the Father doesn’t see us in light of our sin. Instead, God the Father sees His Son Jesus in light of the cross, and we are “right in God’s sight.” 

“Justified” means “just if I’d” never sinned.

With sin comes a sense of guilt.

·      guilt for what we should do but don’t

·      guilt for what we do but shouldn’t.

Guilt, like pain, can actually be good for us.  It alerts us to change.

A sense of self-righteousness is far more dangerous than a sense of guilt.

“Freedom to sin” is nothing more than “Slavery to sin.”

Depending on God’s righteousness and embracing the work of the Holy Spirit empowers me to:

·      Resist temptation by looking toward Jesus and away from the world.

·      Overcome persistent guilt that leads to a changed heart.

·      Find the motivation to grow in my spiritual walk.

·      Live in the assurance that God loves and accepts me.

We like to think that God judges us on a curve.

God’s grading scale is 100% or Fail

“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” (Romans 3:23, NLT)

It’s not what we do on the outside but who we are on the inside that matters.

“Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.” Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used. “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.) And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”  (Mark 7:14-23, NLT)

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

“He committed no sin” (1 Peter 2:22)

“In him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5)

Jesus was in every respect “tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

“He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6)

God the Father took our sin and charged it to God the Son in such a way that Christ was made to be sin for our sake.

The Great Exchange.  God’s righteousness is transferred to us.