Everything the sovereign and powerful God does is right. Righteousness defines God. He is righteousness, and He is the source of righteousness. This lesson can help you understand that who you are in Christ is based on who Christ is.
Life is not fair, it's not a fairy-tale where everyone lives happily ever after.
Ecclesiastes 8:14
"Sometimes something useless happens on earth. Bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people."
Christmas in Newtown, CT. & The 1st Christmas
Matthew 2:16-18
When Jesus came that first Christmas, there was weeping and children massacred in the streets as well.
It's important for the leader of a nation to believe in Jesus Christ.
"Our weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning."
In the Old Testament, through the prophet Jeremiah the Lord declared His dissatisfaction and announced His judgment on the unfaithful leaders of Israel. At the same time, God declared His intentions to raise up a Branch who would be known as the King of Righteousness. Then in Romans, we read where Paul proclaims that the righteousness of God was revealed and made available in Jesus and Jesus alone. Our lesson says that by believing in and confessing Jesus, we too can receive His righteousness.
What makes a righteous person?
If you where to try and live a righteous life, would this make you a righteous person, and by whose set of values do you try to follow?
Understand that your righteousness is based on who Christ is.
I. GOD IS RIGHTEOUSNESS – JEREMIAH 23:5-6
The Righteous Branch of David
5 “The days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will raise up a Righteous Branch of David. He will reign wisely as king and administer justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. This is what He will be named: Yahweh Our Righteousness.
Why can’t we define our own standards of righteousness?
What is righteousness?
- Justice and conformance to established standards – doing the right thing
- Straightness or evenness - Used as an attribute of God.
- Imitating God in motive, work, and relationships.
- Righteousness shows the godly love we studied last week.
- Righteousness cannot be attained, but it can be obtained.
What should we say to the person who thinks, “I know what it takes to get into heaven, and I settled that with God a long time ago?”
- I can’t live up to God’s standards; I never could. I needed Jesus then and I need Him now.
How does this Old Testament prophecy – that has already come to pass – affect our lives?
- We can know that God always has a plan to draw His children back to Himself; He provides the way back for each of us; we can stop stubbornly determining it’s our way or no way.
- Even in the midst of bleak times the Lord works to fulfill His plan and purpose.
- The Lord promised a righteous Branch of David, a King of Righteousness, who would provide deliverance and safety to His people. Jesus became the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise.
How would Jesus describe a righteous person? (Matthew 5:1-16)
A. Chooses Right Attitudes: Inner Attitudes
1. Poor in Spirit
2. Mourn
3. Are Gentle
4. Hunger and thirst for righteousness
B. Show Godly Character: Outer Relationships
5. Merciful
6. Pure in Heart
7. Peacemaker
8. Persecuted
C. Use Your Influence: Show Your Righteousness
1. Be Salt & Light
II. GOD IMPARTS RIGHTEOUSNESS – ROMANS 3:21-26
God’s Righteousness through Faith
21 But now, apart from the law, God’s righteousness has been revealed—attested by the Law and the Prophets 22 —that is, God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24 They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus.
How would Paul have known God’s righteousness has been revealed? How else might Paul have learned?
- He studied Scripture, He had met Jesus personally, and He had seen lives transformed.
- Paul was a biblical scholar, and through his study of the Old Testament, he could see God’s promise for righteousness through faith. But still Paul missed Jesus, and used religious zeal wrongly. Jesus came and put him on the right path (Acts 9). In addition, Jesus pointed out that He was the way to God. Paul combined the teachings of the Old Testament and the life of Christ, with the understanding of the Holy Spirit, to embrace God’s righteousness.
- A quick glance through Jesus’ teachings in John reveals that Jesus is the way to a right standing with God: “I am the gate for the sheep” (10:7), “I am the bread of life” (6:35), “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (14:6).
How would you explain what imparted righteousness means?
- Imparted righteousness, in Methodist theology, is that gracious gift of God given at the moment of the new birth which enables a Christian disciple to strive for holiness and sanctification. John Wesley believed that imparted righteousness worked in tandem with imputed righteousness. Imputed righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus credited to the Christian, enabling the Christian to be justified; imparted righteousness is what God does in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit after justification, working in the Christian to enable and empower the process of sanctification.
What has God revealed about Himself and us through the way He provided righteousness?
- God loves us and shows us how to live. He comes to us rather than hides or waits. Only as we choose righteousness can we find happiness. We can’t do life on our own.
- God proves His unequalled love in so many ways: showing us how; empowering us to love rightly; convicting us of wrong and right.
- The Bible tells us that none of us are righteous in and of ourselves (Psalm 14:1-3). There is nothing we can do to make ourselves righteous, but God Himself has provided us with the righteousness we need. Romans 1:17 states: "the good news tells us that how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scripture say ‘it is through faith that a righteous person has life'". (NLT).
- Faith in Christ removes our sin and activates the righteousness of God and applies it to our lives. It is not our righteousness but His.
- For everyone who believes and has faith, Jesus becomes their righteousness that is why we need Him in our lives.
- God’s righteousness has been fully revealed and demonstrated in Jesus Christ.
- Those who believe in Jesus are justified, redeemed, and reconciled to God.
- To be declared righteous, to have right standing with God, all persons must place their faith in Jesus.
What would you say to the person who believes in God, but just can’t drop everything else right now – like work, chores, and family to tend to?
- “God’s righteousness has been revealed…to all who believe”
- I am so grateful to God for sending Jesus to make me righteous. Now I embrace the adventure of living out that righteousness.
III. RIGHTEOUS ZEAL WORKS – ROMANS 10:1-4, 9-10
Righteousness by Faith Alone
10 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God concerning them is for their salvation! 2 I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 Because they disregarded the righteousness from God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.
What was Paul praying for?
- The apostle Paul was making his plea to his own people who in their religious zeal had rejected God’s provision of His own perfect righteousness for their own self-righteousness. They were intensely religious in their own eyes, but not with the true knowledge of God. They were running well but in the wrong direction. They labored to do good deeds, but for the wrong goal. They were religious, sincere, dedicated, but in their anxiety, they would miss their eternal reward.
Are there people today that are zealous for God, but for the wrong reasons?
- I am not against religious zeal or enthusiasm. However, they are zealous in their religious ceremonies, prayers, observances, holy days, fasts, visitation, teaching, etc., “but not in accordance with knowledge.” There is no use being zealous if you are zealous for the wrong reason. It will not help you if you are going in the wrong direction spiritually.
- The apostle Paul was writing from his own personal experience. He had been very zealous for the Law, and in that enthusiasm, he killed men and women who had a different “knowledge” than his. He had a mistaken zeal for God. He believed sincerely, but he was sincerely wrong. He had been zealous, but his zeal was focused on the wrong object.
- Then there came a day when he gained true knowledge of the righteousness of God, and he counted all his self-righteousness as dung and received salvation by free grace alone.
- Paul’s zeal became refocused “with knowledge” when he met the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus.
What becomes Paul’s true knowledge?
- For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Rom. 10:4).
- Spurgeon once said, “It is easier to get a sinner out of sin than a self-righteous man out of his self-righteousness.”
- Knowledge of what? Before the encounter with Christ he did not know about God’s righteousness and sought to establish his own. In Philippians 3:4-6 he tells about that self-righteousness. He said, “I still count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. . . that I may gain Christ” (v. 8). He gave up his zeal for self-righteousness by good works “that I may know Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (v. 9).
Have you tried to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone who thinks they can earn or merit a right relationship with God by their religious zeal? What is the problem?
- In their zeal they “know nothing about God’s righteousness, and seek to establish their own, they do not subject themselves to the righteousness of God” (v. 3).
- Any form of self-righteousness will never save you.
- God would never have sent His Son to the cross if you could be saved by your religious zeal. The death of Jesus on the cross was needless if you could be saved otherwise (Acts 4:12). If you are trying to have a righteousness of your own by being zealous for God, your church or denomination, baptism, church membership, emotional experiences, etc. then you are in competition with Jesus Christ.
- Your eternal salvation lies absolutely outside of yourself, in the person and atoning work of Jesus Christ. Salvation is not in what you do in your religious zeal, but in what Christ Jesus has done on your behalf.
- All attempts to establish our own standards of righteousness will fail because they are inadequate and incomplete. We must submit to God’s righteousness instead of trying to achieve righteousness on our own. Only by trusting and believing in Jesus can we lay claim to God’s righteousness.
Can we change someone else’s mind? Can we change someone else’s behavior? How then do we show our care for a lack of righteousness? How does 10:4 help? What other truths help, and how do they help?
- Each of us must answer directly to Jesus; that includes the Israelites (Jews), Paul, you and me. Yet God does work through people, and one of the most powerful ways to influence is by treating someone righteously (recall Jer. 23:5). How can we do this without assuming we already have it together?
This lesson forms a bridge between the Old Testament revelation of God as Yahweh and the revelation of God in Christ Jesus. Yahweh our righteousness is the name prophesied for the Messiah, a name that was fulfilled in Christ.
ACT: How should the righteousness of God – and the righteousness He gives to us – affect the way we live at work, home, church and when we are alone?
Work Home Church When Alone
- When we truly live knowing that we are righteous only because of our faith in Jesus, we do not feel or act better than anyone else; we realize God is boss and so we are willing to be taught. We also know the freedom of living by faith as guided by God’s laws, so we love freely, cooperate freely and delight in fulfilling the heart of each law.
- Explore the delight of God’s law, rather than try to throw it out. Samples: shows us God’s heart; shows how to live out imparted righteousness; shows how to be wise and just, gives security.
Prayer of Commitment
Lord, of all that we will celebrate during this season of the year, help me to celebrate Jesus by confessing that He is Lord and the only means of salvation. Amen.
This week we continue in our "Names of God" series as we form a bridge between the Old Testament revelation of God as Yahweh and the revelation of God in Christ Jesus. Yahweh our righteousness is the name prophesied for the Messiah, a name that was fulfilled in Christ.
See you on Sunday!
In His Love,
David & Susan
