Righteousness

2Ti 2:15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

How Righteousness Do I Have To Be?

Righteousness is truly one of the great themes of Scripture. For many, many, years I struggled with being righteous enough for God. I was serving God with all my heart but I always felt I needed to do more. Regardless of what I did, I knew I could have done more. If I prayed for an hour, I could have prayed for two. If I fasted and prayed for a day, I could have fasted and prayed for two days. I was caught in a lifestyle that produced discouragement and spiritual fatigue. If we serve the Lord long enough we finally realize we cannot make ourselves righteous enough to please God. It is impossible, because God accepts only perfect righteousness.

How Righteous Does One Have To Be?

It's an interesting question, how righteous does one have to be to be right with God? How righteous is righteous enough? Of course the answer is 100% righteous. We can't offer God a righteousness that is less than perfect and expect Him to accept it. It is true, that my righteousness, at my very best, is less than perfect. There is always room for improvement, and that is a fatal flaw. I cannot offer God something that has room for improvement, and expect His favor. Or worse yet, I cannot expect to be saved by a righteousness that is less than perfect.

Perfect righteousness is a gift.

I eventually understood the righteousness God gives is 100% perfect. It is called justification and is the result of forgiveness.

God has chosen to base His plan of salvation on forgiveness, not human ability. Only forgiveness makes one right with perfectly right with God!

God's way of righteousness is a righteousness based on blood atonement. When we are forgiven, the result is perfect righteousness. Take a moment and think of forgiveness - what value would forgiveness have if it did not make us perfectly right with God?

Forgiveness would have no value whatsoever if it did not make us right with God, perfectly right! This is the beauty of the Gospel. And, I can do that, I can be perfectly forgiven. Through the cross, I can stand before God, not guilty and unashamed. Jesus has made me right with God, perfectly right!

The great thing about forgiveness is that you don't have to be a great person to be forgiven.

Even the weakest, most sinful person can be forgiven and as a result made right with God. The blood is that powerful. God is perfectly and completely satisfied with the blood of Jesus Christ as an atonement for sin. Satisfaction means He is satisfied with nothing else but blood, there is no other offering for sin, no work is good enough, no amount of sincerity, no amount of effort, can provide forgiveness. Forgiveness is by blood, blood alone.

Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. Heb 9:22

Matthew 26:28 28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Romans 3:23-24 (NLT) 23 For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins

Isaiah 53:5-11 (GNB) 5 But because of our sins he was wounded, beaten because of the evil we did. We are healed by the punishment he suffered, made whole by the blows he received. 6 All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way. But the Lord made the punishment fall on him, the punishment all of us deserved. 7 “He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly; he never said a word. Like a lamb about to be slaughtered, like a sheep about to be sheared, he never said a word. 8 He was arrested and sentenced and led off to die, and no one cared about his fate. He was put to death for the sins of our people. 9 He was placed in a grave with the wicked, he was buried with the rich, even though he had never committed a crime or ever told a lie.” 10 The Lord says, “It was my will that he should suffer; his death was a sacrifice to bring forgiveness. And so he will see his descendants; he will live a long life, and through him my purpose will succeed. 11 After a life of suffering, he will again have joy; he will know that he did not suffer in vain. My devoted servant, with whom I am pleased, will bear the punishment of many and for his sake I will forgive them.

If you're seeking to be right with God, then come to Jesus, He alone can save and make you right with God.

Romans 10:9-11 (NLT) 9 For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. 11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed.”

Thank you, Lord Jesus!

ISA 53:1-11 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

ROM 3:20-24 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

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