“When it goes well for the righteous, the city rejoices, And when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.11By the blessing [of the influence] of the upright the city is exalted, But by the mouth of the wicked it is torn down.”

Proverbs 11:10-11 AMP

We read a lot about the “righteousness” of the believer. The word appears more than 400 times and some words closely related push the number to more than 500! In contrast the word faith & faithfulness are used in 348 verses. This means that there are 1.5 times as many verses about righteousness as there are about faith! Many today do not really understand what the word means or its implications to their lives. Righteousness is to be “in right standing” with God. A common misunderstanding is that our actions are the determining factor in God’s judgement of our righteousness. While there is a relationship between our actions and our right standing with God, it is our right relationship that produces our actions, not the other way around! The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome the following,

“For if by the trespass of the one (Adam), death reigned through the one (Adam), much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in [eternal] life through the One, Jesus Christ. 18So then as through one trespass [Adam’s sin] there resulted condemnation for all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19For just as through one man’s disobedience [his failure to hear, his carelessness] the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of the one Man the many will be made righteous and acceptable to God and brought into right standing with Him.”

Romans 5:17-19 AMP

Righteousness is a gift from God to those who have accepted through faith what Jesus has done on their behalf at Calvary. Salvation the produces a changed heart which in turn, changes our actions! It is our changed heart that produces these changed actions in our life reflecting the work of righteous in our hearts! When selecting a new king for the nation, God looked for a man with a “heart” for Him!

“But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 

1 Samuel 16:7 AMP

When dealing with the reality of the religious leaders of the day, Jesus told them that,

““Woe to you, [self-righteous] scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and robbery and self-indulgence (unrestrained greed).”

Matthew 23:25 AMP

Religion always claims that if we clean up our actions, our hearts will become clean. God’s way is to change our heart and then our actions will follow suit! Actions are the fruit of what our hearts are producing! If that be the case, then the above verses make complete sense! If the actions of righteousness are displayed and practiced, the city will rejoice. But if those actions are driven by the sin, death and destruction will follow. We have seen this play out time an time again on the streets of our cites as marauding bands of the ungodly ravage and destroy property and life in the name of a better life! What foolishness! Good things will never come from bad motives. The cross demonstrates this as those who have received salvation will receive what Jesus deserved while Jesus took upon Himself the penalty we deserved. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth,

“He made Christ who knew no sin to [judicially] be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God [that is, we would be made acceptable to Him and placed in a right relationship with Him by His gracious lovingkindness].”

2 Corinthians 5:21 AMP

Because the righteousness of Christ has been bestowed upon us, we can now peruse holiness and allow the work of the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of Christ in our lives so those who see us will give glory and honor to God! Have a righteous day! Pastor Ken