All throughout the Bible, a common theme is righteousness. Those who have it are blessed, those who do not are cursed. But what exactly is righteousness, and how do we obtain it? There are many varying opinions on this, but what matters is what the Bible says… and what it says might surprise you.
The most commonly held belief today is that righteousness is “built-up” over time by the things that we do and the good that we promote. Part of this belief is also that in like-manner, we can lose our righteousness by doing bad.
This is not what the Bible teaches. This belief mostly stems from a misunderstanding of the Old Testament and what it represents, versus what we have today in Christ Jesus.
Abraham is a perfect example of Righteousness by Faith. He was not a perfect man, he did not always do right, and he did not even always trust the promises that God gave to him. Yet with all of his faults, God not only counted Abraham as a righteous man, but also called him a prophet! So let’s see how Abraham attained this righteous state, Galatians 3:6-9 tells us how:
“Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Know you therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel to Abraham, saying, In you will all nations be blessed.
So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.”
These verses tells us two simple things: First it tells us how Abraham received his righteousness, and second, it tells us how we too can receive the same righteousness. Notice what the verses say: That Abraham “believed God”. Now what did Abraham believe God for? Well, if you read down a bit further in verse 8, you will see that Abraham believed God for the Gospel, the good news (the word gospel means “good news”) of Jesus Christ, that He would come and take away the sins of the world.
Verses 7 and 9 tell us that we too can obtain this same righteousness and all of the blessings included along with it by the very same method in which Abraham attained them… Faith in God and in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now let’s take a look at Proverbs 11:5:
“The righteousness of the perfect will direct his way: but the wicked will fall by his own wickedness.”
Some translations say blameless instead of perfect. So is the scripture saying that to attain righteousness that we must be blameless and perfect? Well, yes, but not in the way that we typically think of it! You see my friends, no-one can be blameless or perfect apart from Jesus. Men have been trying to keep the law when in-fact the only true way to perfection is to accept and receive the One who is altogether perfect, Jesus Christ.
Remember that Abraham was not a perfect man. Most of us know the story of how Abraham lied about his wife – twice – and God still called him righteous and a prophet. Now let me show you another example of how the righteousness of God comes to us through faith instead of works: Abraham’s wife, Sarah. We know that she who was old, was promised a son by God; do you think she had unwavering trust in God and that she always acted and performed perfectly? If you read Hebrews 11:11 you might think so… look what it says:
“Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.”
After reading this, you might think that Sarah was such a strong woman of faith that no-one could possibly stand beside her in comparison. Yet whenever we read scripture we must interpret it in the light of the finished work of Jesus Christ. We must remember that it is His righteousness – not her own – that this verse of scripture is referring to. Let us examine the actual historic account that this verse of scripture is referencing… The promise made by God to Sarah that she would have a child is found in Genesis 18:10-15:
“And he said, I will certainly return to you according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah your wife will have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.
Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.
Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old will I have pleasure, my lord being old also?
And the LORD said to Abraham, Therefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Will I of a surety bear a child, which am old?
Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah will have a son.
Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but you did laugh.”
After a simple reading of these verses declaring the actual account between Sarah and the LORD, we can quite plainly see that not only did Sarah laugh in disbelief when God promised her a son, but then she lied to God about her laughing when He called her on it!
So we can see that Sarah was not a perfect woman, so why then does Hebrews 11:11 make it sound like she was a great character of faith? Here is the key: This is the way God sees us today in Christ!
My friends, today because of what Jesus has done for us and because we simply receive Him, His righteousness makes us that blameless and perfect person that we read about in Proverbs earlier.
It has absolutely nothing to do with our performance, and everything to do with our position. You may have noticed the title of today’s message is called “The Place of Righteousness”, which is hinting at a very important truth that I would like to share with you now. The word Righteousness is not a verb, it is a noun! A verb is what you do, a noun is a person, place, or thing. Righteousness is a place; it is a position that you are placed into by Jesus Christ and not by your own efforts or doing good.
Now please do not misunderstand me here, I am not against good works and doing what is right. We should all want to do good, but our motivation is different. We are not doing good to try and earn favor with God, but we do good effortlessly because Christ has set us free. It is no longer a struggle to do right but it is now natural because Christ has changed our nature.
As I bring this to a close today, let’s drive this point home with one more scripture, Ephesians 2:8-9:
“For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
A simple truth… The salvation of Christ which brings us His righteousness is a gift of God. Not from us and not by works, otherwise we could boast that we did it ourselves by our own power and strength.
It’s time that we learn the lesson of Abraham and Sarah. We are bankrupt by ourselves, but we have everything in Jesus that we could ever need. It’s not a license to sin (also a noun) but it is the only true way out of sin, into the place of righteousness.
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