Righteous, Dude!

Alas. I did not really find what I was looking for. I was hoping I could find a specific scripture passage that succinctly defined “righteousness.” The closest thing I found was Romans 8:10 which seems to suggest that “sin” and “righteousness” are opposites. Here are some more of the puzzle pieces that may be a part of coming up with a complete definition.

• According to Vine’s Expository of New Testament Words, dikaiosune (translated “righteousness” in Romans 3) is defined as “the character or quality of being right or just.”


• The Greek-English Lexicon of New Testament Words defines it as: “the state of him who is such as he ought to be.”


• Unger’s Bible Dictionary says it is “purity of heart and rectitude of life; the being and doing right.”


• Righteousness is both something that describes a person’s character/attributes as well as something we practice (I John 3:7).


• Righteousness is both something we pursue (I Timothy 6:1) and something “credited” to our account through faith.


• Righteousness is both something we possess now and hope for in the future (Galatians 5:5).


• Righteousness is provided through Jesus (Philippians 1:11).


• Righteousness is part of what God provides to protect us from the attacks of our enemy (Ephesians 6:14).

In a discussion of Romans 3:21-26 in The Gospel for Real Life, Jerry Bridges writes:

What is this righteousness from God--or, more literally stated, the righteousness of God? In the famous story of Martin Luther’s life, Luther at first thought the righteousness of God was the righteousness that God required for us in perfectly fulfilling His Law. Because he realized more and more he could not possible measure up to that impossible demand, he grew increasingly angry with God. At one time he had exclaimed, “Love God? I hate him.” Eventually he came to realize that the righteousness of God was that which God provided for us. At that time he said, “Thereupon I felt myself reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.

What then is this righteousness from God that Paul announces to us, and over which Martin Luther struggled? It is a righteousness that He both requires and provides for us. It is the righteousness that He requires be cause it must full satisfy the utmost demands of His Law, both in its precepts and penalty. For although this righteousness is apart from Law as far as we are concerned, it is not as far as God is concerned. Rather it must be a righteousness that both perfectly fulfills the righteous requirements of His Law and satisfies the demands of His justice toward those who have broken His Law.

This righteousness from God, the, is nothing less than the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, who, through His sinless life and His death in obedience to the Father’s will, perfectly fulfilled the Law of God in both its precepts and its penalty.

Encouragement From Others

[Okay, it's the last day of September, and the blog roll is empty for the month. I'll take a stab at filling it with this.]

The study of Moses in BSF is turning out to be quite enlightening. Aside from a few minor interpretation issues in the ministry's notes, we've been presented with several worthwhile application challenges.

I thought that I'd share are four of them from this week's study.

We can look at the life of Moses and see our own. If we examine his characteristics and life events, as revealed by him and the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and interpretations of his life and actions in the New Testatment, mainly Acts 7 and Hebrews 11, we can measure our own successes and shortcomings. And joy comes in when we are alert to how God is orchestrating events in our lives, as he did in Moses'.

For example, Jesus tells us in John 15:5, "apart from me you can do nothing." If you look at Moses, he failed in a whole lot before he convicted himself to God. What did he accomplish (what fruit did he bear) in his life before he met God and accepted his assignment? Josephus says a bunch about Moses' triumphs, but all of them are secular.

When he went on his own volition to be the great emancipator, he killed an Egyptian. The very next day, he was rejected by his countrymen. What did he do then? He ran away to save his life. Spiritually, he had failed. The Israelites didn't see him as "judge and ruler." They didn't see him as their deliverer. So, he went away and became "an alien in a foreign land," a stranger to the Midianites, to his Hebrews, to his Egyptians, and even to himself.

Moses discovered that he was capable of murder, and we can be similarly as culpable if we go our own way instead of God's. This isn't the only example of someone good in the Bible who did something terribly wrong. Who would have thought that David was capable of adultery and murder to cover it up? Do we think that we are better equipped or holier than men like these? I doubt it. The learning point is this: if we do not stay close to God and wait on him, we can become capable of doing the most heinous things that any one else has ever done.

Moses probably thought that he was doing the right thing when he took on the task master who was beating a Hebrew. Did Moses set out to kill him? The Bible doesn't say. It just says "Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand." (Ex 2:12) Conclusion? It sure sounds like murder. Point here is that no matter how noble our desires or how lofty our objectives, it is crucial that we use God's methods to accomplish them, not our own, not the world's.

Using Moses as an example, we can see that God will work in us to overcome our failures and work through us in His time, in the place of His choosing. It was 40 years and lots of preparation time before God used Moses. But He used him for one of the greatest events in human history.

So, even if we have stains from our mistakes, the ones we keep to ourselves and for our own personal self-regret, we can be encouraged by the life and trials of Moses (and others) and be ready when called on to do something small.

Who knows what that small thing might turn into?

IBG / JF

One Abnormally Born

Eureka! The verse I was looking for this morning is verse 8 (highlighted) but I think the whole context might shed some light on some things we were talking about this morning. I Corinthians 15:1-11

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter,[b] and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.