Desiring Righteousness
Desiring Righteousness
King David had a true desire for righteousness. In his 119th Psalm he details his thoughts on following God’s precepts and living a righteous life. The early verses of this Psalm are peppered with David’s personal admonition to be “steadfast” and “diligent” in keeping God’s commands. His writing begs the question: do we truly desire righteousness?
In order to know if you want something, you have to understand what that thing is. So what is righteousness? Well, by human definition it is “the quality of being morally right or justifiable” ( according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary ). So, from a human standpoint, righteousness can be boiled down to being moral. That would work in accord with David’s Psalm - to a point. David certainly discusses living what we would consider a moral life by following the statutes of God.
However, let’s take a step back and understand that righteousness does not come from man, and furthermore, man’s definition of righteousness is limited by man’s incomplete understanding of what righteousness is. Now, I have no intention of over complicating righteousness, but it is important to view righteousness from the Source’s viewpoint rather than the recipient’s.
It is clear that righteousness comes from God. There is no other source of true righteousness other than the one and only Perfect God. There is no fault in Him. He is righteousness and all righteousness is imparted through Him. So from the Source’s viewpoint what are somethings we understand about righteousness:
1. Genesis 15:6 - God is willing to impart righteousness based on belief (or faith).
2. Isaiah 51:8 - God’s righteousness is everlasting.
3. Matthew 5:6 - Those who seek after righteousness are blessed and will find it.
4. Matthew 6:33 - We are to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness above all else.
After reviewing these 4 points ...by the way, these are just 4 of thousands of references in the Word of God to righteousness (you may want to review the others as well). After reviewing the 4 references listed above, it is clear that while there is a moral component to righteousness, identifying righteousness exclusively with moral actions is a mistake. God is not impressed by our morality. Nor is His righteousness bound by our morality.
True righteousness goes way beyond man’s morality. True righteousness is imparted by God. It is imparted to those who seek God and keep His statutes. A moral life is a result of seeking righteousness - not the reverse! The impartation of righteousness is a result of the grace of God meeting the faith of one who is willing to believe. When a person leaves all else and seeks God first, the end result will be a redeemed life and the imparting of righteousness through Jesus Christ.
What then should be our disposition toward righteousness? If we truly seek it, we must first forsake any notion of achieving or acquiring in our own power. Our righteousness is not only complete rubbish, but it is false at its core. We could work to become righteous throughout eternity. The end result would be unfortunate souls who have lived under the erroneous pretense of being morally right. We cannot submit ourselves to such futility.
We must seek righteousness through the only act that will ever give you hope of achieving it. By submitting our lives into the hands of a loving, righteous God we will freely receive that which we have no ability to acquire on our own. How is this possible? Jesus Christ. Why is this possible? I have no idea. The only explanation is that God loves us.