Understanding The Word

Righteousness and Unrighteousness

This is a very in-depth subject/study because it is also (other than salvation) the utmost of importance for us to understand…..and yet, when you become saved you realize this really isn’t so hard to understand unless you are still living carnally in/of the world instead of in Christ.

Before we can understand righteous judgement, we must first understand the difference in what is righteous and what is unrighteous.  While I went over some of this on my ‘Understanding Sin’ blog, I will go into much more detail here.

God’s Righteousness

“Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.” Psalms 98:9

We must first start with God, where all judgement comes from and is the pillar of our laws, our morals, and our authority. For God created all these things for the purpose of His glorification, as He is most Holy and knowing that we as humans are not, He had to create laws in order to show His goodness, His righteousness, His fairness, His wisdom, mercy, and grace thru His servants. (In other words, the right way we should live as humans.)

Definition of Righteousness

“acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or sin; to do and be in the right”

It is so much more biblically, because God is righteousness.  We as humans will never be righteous in our own right; we must first come to the understanding that we as humans are corrupt with wickedness and the only way to become righteous is thru the Blood of Jesus Christ. We cannot work for our righteousness because without Jesus we do not know what is right.

It is God who shows us right versus wrong, while thru-out life there are people who  can and will do the right thing even though they do not believe in God, they were still taught according to the laws, rules, and being moral….and all of these were taught by God on how we as humans should act. So even though they do not believe in God, they believe in His statutes. 

“But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for the righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there by any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;” 1 Timothy 1:8-10

Since God taught us humans what morality is, and what He considers good and bad.  If we take Him out of the picture…..you are now living in a world that is quickly showing you the consequence of such action. God’s righteousness is the basis for the entire world, no matter your belief system, and because God is being taken out of the picture, all of our morals, fairness, justice, and laws are changing so that now, evil is good and good is evil.

“Therefore the law is slacked, and judgement doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgement proceedeth.” Habakkuk 1:4

Without God, there are no laws of justice and fairness, because humans are not just and fair…..without laws, there is lawlessness, without morality, you have immorality, without good, the only remains is evil….and if evil rules…..then Man’s Judgement changes per the wants of said evil, and in allowing Evil/Sin to rule will bring the ultimate Righteous Judgement of God to all the world……

“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” Romans 10:3

We are seeing fairness and justice not being found…..we are finding greed and power winning more and more every day.  Evil has found its way into people’s hearts and we know the heart is desperately wicked…..evil is starting to overtake the world, we see it every day, we experience it every day.

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” Proverbs 29:2

Biblical Unrighteousness

“And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.  And in controversy they shall stand in judgement; and they judge it according to my judgements: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my Sabbaths.” Ezekiel 44:24

If you do not understand right vs wrong, good vs evil, how will/can you ever be able to judge and make a righteous choice?

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17

What is good and righteous according to God?  What is wrong and unrighteous according to God? Let’s take a look at what is considered unrighteous, for then we will know what is considered righteous…..

 “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” 2 Timothy 3:2-5

“Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgement of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” Romans 1:29-32

I must speak on these individually, because we are seeing people today twisting the meanings of all of these words….and therefore twisting God’s words into promotions of sinfulness and acceptance of living in sin.

As saved believers, we all fall under these categories at some time or another as well, for we are still human and weak…..the difference for us is that the payment we would pay has already been paid, our debt was paid with blood in full for our belief and acceptance in Christ Jesus.

Are you not glad that Jesus was our gift?  That He with His precious blood wiped us clean of all these things that we once did and sometimes still do because we are human? Are you thankful that He loved us enough to forgive us of all these awful sins? We as humans are worthy of death (HELL) but Thank God, for His grace, and His mercy…..He granted us with a way free, a way to heaven if we only believe in His sacrifice.

His Judgement is Righteous, His Judgement is Fair…..His Judgement is coming…..His Judgement is absolute…..

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; “ Romans 1:18

After salvation, these sins turn into part of the works that will be judged at the Bema seat of Christ, we are saved from Hell (death) but we still must answer for the things we do in the flesh.  All of the things we do both good and bad will be weighed at the Judgement seat of Christ.

“For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ; that ever one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10

This is why we can gain and lose crowns and rewards….

“If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” 1 Corinthians 3:15

In other words, we will be ashamed not to have anything to give to Christ…..(except for our belief in Christ, our eternity would be Hell instead of Heaven)….but we will be much more worshipful that we will be in heaven because Christ still loves and accepts us and will take away that shame.

Let me be clear….there will be no punishment from God for these things we do….all of the punishment has been paid in Full….we just have to answer God as to why we did what we did…not for Him, He already knows….but He is bringing out the honest truth within us, so we will know and understand why we did the things we did.

All actions, words, and beliefs will be accounted for, for everyone whether at the Bema seat of Christ or the White Throne judgement…..I can only hope you are at the former rather than the latter.

Biblical Righteousness

We as humans can and will never be righteous except for the acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Savior, however, this does not mean that we cannot try to live rightly by the word of God.  What does this mean? How can we live right if we still as believers can and will sin?  We try…..we try to live the way God would want us to….we want to…we want to please God as much as possible because we love Him.

How can we do this?  To live the opposite of all the unrighteousness above…..

Can we follow all the laws and commandments God gave perfectly? No, we can’t, and anyone who claims they can, are not being truthful.  It is impossible, for then what need would we have for Christ?

Should we just forget them then?  Go on living the way we want to because we are still going to heaven and the rewards don’t matter much….in this thinking, is error, but we will not fully understand that error until we are face to face with Christ.

There are many things in scripture that God tells us we ought not to do, just because most of them are in the Old Testament does not mean we should ignore these things, they are not to be forgotten; there is a lot of teachings today from many people that we only have 2 commandments to follow since we are no longer under the law, but that is not what scripture says….and I find it troubling that so many people are of the belief Jesus came to fulfil the Law as a sacrificial Lamb that we now only 2 commandments to live by…..

 “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30

If the Bible is a roadmap, while it is not all about us (the Church) it still as concepts, rules, and the way God wants us to live thru-out its entirety and if we are to love the Lord with all our heart, should we not want to do and follow things that please Him, that are right? And if we are to love our neighbor like ourselves, do we not want them to know Christ as Savior to be saved and go to heaven with us?

These are the 2 greatest commandments, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other commandments that are be voided or ignored.

For example:

If God commands us not to fornicate….do we ignore His commandment or do we try to live right by waiting until marriage?

Many people will say, ‘that is technically not a commandment’…..God does not want us to sin….but He knows we will…..it doesn’t mean we don’t even try not to.  Being saved does not give us free reign to live a sinful life…..many Christians do still live in sin….in fact the majority of saved believers are living very carnal lives, not even willing to try to change…not even hearing the Holy Spirit trying to tell them to stop.

None of us are exempt….but looking around today I see too many Christians not trying to lead a righteous life, because they still want to do what they want and live the way they want.

If we as believers and lovers of Christ Jesus want to please Him; want to show others our love for our Savior; want to show others out respect for our King, then start by doing the opposite of the list above and you will be on the right track……

“Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” Romans 6:13

To be continued….