Our BSF lecture focused on righteousness and our third principle stated, “God’s way of salvation is the only way to turn from sin and turn to righteousness.”
Well, I was stumped. I had always thought of righteousness as being right. But this obviously isn’t the case in this sense so I decided to find out what I was missing.
Webster’s says righteousness is “acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or sin; morally right or justifiable; or arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality”
The synonym listed is moral.
So in my upbringing I had missed the “God” in the sense of the word.
In the statement above, God’s salvation allows us to be righteous (or free from guilt). Jesus erased our sins. And being righteous means to act in accordance with God’s law–to continually strive to be like Jesus.
God is righteous because He is free from sin. Isaiah 46:12-13: God says “…you who are far from righteousness, I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed.”
I made the mistake of going to Sam’s Club again (I really need to stay away from that place. I think I would be a fiend if I went to the Bible BookStore as regularly) and I bought Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary by J.D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney. I had seen it before but decided to wait–until I looked up righteousness and it had the definition I had been seeking! So, I bought it!
This Dictionary says righteousness is “any conformity to a standard, whether that standard has to do with inner character of a person or the objective standard of accepted law….Lord God always acts in righteousness because He always has a right relationship with people.”
This also explains righteousness in terms of Jesus. Fascinating stuff and I’d highly recommend it. I can’t wait to dive more into it.
In essence, being righteous is being like Jesus or being like God.
thanks for sharing. I am going to go to Sam’s and get one….I love Sam’s. Your post was very inciteful. I now have a new understanding. Have a great day.
and yet in our world today so many people use it as a put down. “Oh you’re so righteous get off your high horse” or very cool “wow that was righteous”
Isn’t it wonderful to have new meaning and depth through the BSF lessons and the Word? 🙂
Righteous is a fantastic word! Your desire to follow up & get a handle on this is commendable (: Bless You!! I like to think of it in these terms. We are righteous not because we are right, good, moral, etc. but because God is! He gives righteousness to us in & through Jesus (ie God) because He loves us. What we do is claim it as His gift to us. Interestingly, this ‘gift’ is not free, it was paid in full by Jesus
Being righteous does not mean to be “Totally Holy”. So no need to feel discouraged when we sin, though we must repent. My own understanding of ‘righteous’ means to walk with God, acknowledge Him of everything you are going to do and seek His guidance. With Him being the true light, we cannot be far from ‘righteousness”.