Did that sound disrespectful? It wasn’t meant to be! Righteousness tends to be one of those ‘major, big concepts’ that many people choose to ignore rather than to understand. There was a wonderful exchange that occurred when Jesus willingly took on the sins of the whole world.
“He made Christ who knew no sin to [judicially] be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God [that is, we would be made acceptable to Him and placed in a right relationship with Him by His gracious lovingkindness].” (2Corinthians 5:21, AMP)
Read that again. First though, do you understand what ‘righteousness’ is and means? If you don’t then how can you ever understand and appreciate what God and Jesus did for us in making the exchange, transfer.
Webster: acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or sin – morally right or justifiable; conforming to a standard of what is right and good; …conformity to established sanctioned codes or accepted notions of right and wrong; …involvement of more difficult .or subtle questions of rightness, fairness, or equity. … committed to the highest ethical principles; moral excellence in character; guiltlessness or blamelessness; … to be righteous before God and the world; moral eminence and freedom from anything petty, mean, or dubious in conduct and character.
Does this describe our condition? Is this who we are, how we act? Prior to this time and this act we weren’t, righteous and we never could on our own. There was no way we could be in relationship with the Father apart from being righteous – we were completely stranded.
Scriptural definition (according to Google): Righteousness is defined as “the quality of being morally correct and justifiable.” It can also be considered synonymous with “rightness” or being “upright”.
https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/righteousness/ gives an excellent discussion on righteousness. To pare it down, it basically is telling us that God, the Father is righteous, as is His Son, Jesus. we betrayed our relationship with God so we lost our standing. However, He knew what was necessary to re-establish the relationship – the gift given by Jesus. All we need do is to acknowledge and recognize what Jesus did to provide that atonement.
I’ve talked about righteousness so many times, and this is to reaffirm the importance of righteousness and how it provides the foundation for all we can become. Our sense of confidence, of strength should increase as we know that the Lord has provided our way to fruitfulness and fulfillment. As we stand on this understanding and act on it we increase our expression of faith.
