RIGHTEOUSNESS
By Suzanne Benner

Our children have memorized some of the Psalms and say a different one each night with their prayers. One night my daughter quoted Psalm 1 which ends with, "The Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." Then she asked, "Who is it talking about when it says 'the righteous'? I thought no one is righteous."

Good question. The Bible does say that no one is righteous, in the New Testament, "There is no one righteous, not even one." (Romans 3:10) and in the Old Testament, "There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins" (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

God knew that sin would enter the world and that no one would be able to live a sinless life. Thus God made a way to give righteousness to imperfect people. Through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God's justice is fulfilled. Through belief, God's gift of righteousness is bestowed on us. The Bible says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness" (Hebrews 4:3, Genesis 15:6).

So, although we are not righteous on our own, we can be made righteous by believing in God and in His Son Jesus Christ.

Paul explains in Philippians that all the work we do to try to achieve righteousness is worthless -- we can't be good enough. Paul's goal was not to follow all the rules so that God would be obliged to consider him righteous, but rather to believe that God had saved him through Jesus.

Paul says: "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ -- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." (Philippians 3:8,9)

When we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we are "the righteous."

~Heavenly Father, I do believe in You. I know that on my own I will never be righteous. Give me faith, that I may be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ -- the righteousness that comes from You and is by faith.

About the Author

Suzanne Benner lives in Calgary with her husband and three school-aged children. She leads a small group Bible study in her local church and is passionate about Scripture memorization.