God's Righteousness

We all have heard about God’s righteousness, and I don’t know about you, but I often equate that with His judgment. Of course, God knows right from wrong and only participates in what is right. Of course, He judges things when they are wrong, including people who are doing wrong according to His edicts and declarations. However, His righteousness also shows up in His mercy.

I am struck with how His mercy takes into account His laws and how we break them. Yet, He provided for the fact that mankind would break His laws and not follow through, not being able to only do righteous things. As a matter of fact, He’s the only one who can perform righteous deeds all the time. He knew that, and He knew He would have to judge, but He loves us and desires us to be in fellowship with Him (see last week’s blog article), so He provided a way to exercise His great and powerful mercy toward us. His mercy is demonstrated by the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

Our faith is what determines our righteousness. Scripture gives us the example of Abraham’s faith: “Then he [Abraham] believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6).” Our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way we are made righteous in God’s eyes.

God’s righteousness is part of His character. He’s always been and always will be righteous. He’s the only one who exists with righteousness without the help of another. We need faith in Jesus to make us righteous. For us, we need both God’s judgment and His mercy to be made righteous. Without judgment there would be no need for mercy, and without mercy there could be no way for us to be righteous before God.

Psalm 103 talks about His judgment and His mercy being opposite sides of the same coin as far as our righteousness goes. I memorized verses 6-8, which indicates these things about God’s righteousness:

The Lord performs righteous deeds,

And judgments for all who are oppressed.

He made know His ways to Moses,

His acts to the sons of Israel.

The Lord is compassionate and gracious,

Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.

I also liked Psalm 71:2:

In Thy righteousness deliver me, and rescue me;

Incline Thine ear to me, and save me.

May you celebrate your deliverance through the recognition of God’s righteousness. May you see that it’s only by His judgment and mercy that true righteousness can be extended to us. May you draw nearer to God because you understand and appreciate His righteousness.