What Is Righteousness?

Would you rather listen than read? Listen here.

Killdeer

Have you ever heard of a bird called a Killdeer? They look a lot like Sand Pipers, but smaller. These brown, black and white birds are so interesting to watch. In front of our house, we have rocks that cover the ditch. For the last two years; the Killdeer have laid their eggs among the rocks.

What is interesting about these birds is that they live in pairs and work together to protect their eggs. If you get anywhere near the eggs, which are very well hidden in the rocks, the momma bird will fly a short distance away and start screeching and acting wounded. If you are paying close attention, you will also find the dad playing dead nearby. See the video below where I captured this.

They do this because predators will go after the weak and wounded because they’re easier to catch. These birds will sacrifice themselves for the sake of their young. It is so interesting to watch them protect their eggs.

Moreso, I love how God gives us pictures through His creation of Himself. The Killdeer will sacrifice themselves for their babies. Just as Jesus sacrificed Himself for us. I know the magnitude of what Jesus did is much more than the birds, but it is a picture of what sacrificial love looks like.

The Cross

The book of Romans is bringing alive the power of salvation for me. I have known what Jesus has done for me for a long time, but experiencing the cross is another.

When Jesus died on the cross, more than salvation took place.

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’”

1 Peter 2:24 NIV

By His wounds, we are healed. I experienced this multiple times and you can read some of those stories here. I never would have made it through the last six years of Lyme Disease without the hope of the cross and the healing that comes from Jesus because of it. Through experiencing God’s divine healing, the significance of the cross is so much more real in my life.

In Jesus’ death, He saved us from our sin. He rescued us from the wrath of God that we deserve because of our sinful state. We can live forgiven, free of shame and guilt, because of what Jesus did for us.

Righteousness

He also died for our righteousness. This is the third word in this series that we will look at. I like to simplify them so they are easy to remember, and the simple definition of righteousness is to be right with God.

Adam and Eve lived in the garden and experienced complete communion with God. They would walk with God in the cool of the day. Then sin entered the picture when Adam and Eve succumbed to the lies of the enemy. When they ate from the Tree Of Knowledge, they severed this sweet relationship with God.

As part of the plan, God gave the law to the Israelites through Moses. This law gave a way for the people to offer sacrifices to God to be made right with Him again. However, there was no way for the people to always stay right with God. This took man’s effort.

Also, in God’s plan to reconcile Himself to us, He sent His one and only Son to earth to live completely as we have. He experienced every trial, every emotion, everything we have experienced. He lived sinless among the sinful and then died a horrific death in our place. A man without sin took on the sin of the world to make us clean.

The veil in the temple tore in two at the moment of Jesus’ death. You can read more about that here. This symbolized the restoration of our relationship with God.

The Shed Blood Of Jesus

Now, because of the shed blood of Jesus, our perfect God can look at imperfect humanity and have the relationship with us, as He originally intended.

This week in our study of Romans, we looked at Romans 1:16-17. Throughout history, these two sentences are regarded as the most important statements ever made. These words touched Martin Luther so profoundly they ignited him to begin the protestant reformation. Here is the scripture.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Romans 1:16-17 NIV

There are some incredible hidden gems in here that I shared with my community. If you want to learn what I taught, you can always join us here.

But, look at the last sentence, “a righteousness that is by faith.” There is nothing we can do to have a better relationship with God than accept Jesus as our Savior. Doing good, helping others, performing good deeds, nothing will get us in a right relationship with God. It is only through faith, accepting all Jesus has done for us, that we can be made right with God. And this is the beautiful picture of righteousness.