Judged by Righteousness

Psalms 9:7 But the LORD sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, 8 and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the people with uprightness.

I have discussed how God is both our Creator and our King.  Today we are going to look at a much trickier aspect of God and that is God as our Judge.  What gives God the right to judge us? Well, He did create us and as our King He gave us laws to follow so logically who better to be our judge than God?  The Bible states in the above verses and in other places (Acts 17:30) that when God judges us, He will judge us in righteousness because He is a righteous judge. Psalms 7:11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. So that begs the question, what is righteousness?

This is where things can get tricky.  It's very important that you don't rely on just what I point out here, but that you also open up your Bible and discover all it says about the subject of what it means to be righteous because the word "righteous" appears in the Bible (ESV translation) two hundred and sixty-two times.  The word "righteousness" appears two hundred and fifty-nine times. Clearly the Bible has a lot to say on the subject that I can't fit into one post, so please do some research on your own.  However, I am going to try to explain the concept of biblical righteousness as best I can.

First let's ask the question, who is righteous before God? Psalm 143:2 Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. There you have it.  No one who is alive is righteous before God.  Even Jesus backs this up. Mark 10:18 and Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." Why is no one good?  Because God gave us His standard of righteousness in the law.  These laws embody who God is.  The laws that God gave the people of Israel are a description of God because they outline His very nature. In order for a person to be righteous he must keep God's commandments.  However, this is an impossible task.  All anyone has to do is go through the Ten Commandments to discover that they are guilty of breaking these laws, are therefore unrighteous in the eyes of God. 

You may be asking yourself what you can do in order to be judged worthy to get to heaven, and the answer to that question is that there is nothing you can do to get to heaven. Romans 5:17 For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in the life through one man Jesus Christ.    Paul tells us here that righteousness is in fact a free gift of God through the death of His Son Jesus.  Just as one man's actions (Adam) caused the rest of us to have a nature of sin, so it is that we can receive righteousness through the actions of Jesus.  But the most important thing to take away from that verse is that righteousness cannot be earned by anything that you or I do as people because it will be given to us as a freely given gift of grace. 

But it is important to point out that God will not force this gift upon you.  If you don't want any part of the grace offered to you then God will not make you accept it and give it to you anyway.  God has offered you the gift, but it is you who must accept it.  The Bible says in both Genesis 15:6 and in Romans 4:3 that all Abraham had to do was to believe and it was credited to him as righteousness.  So what does this have to with you? Romans 10:9 because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  All you have to do is truly believe that God gave His Son to die for your sins and raised Him from the dead after three days in a victory over death, then confess that fact with your mouth.  Because if you truly believe then you are going to recognize your sins and the unrighteousness in your life and you are going to give those up in a pursuit of righteousness.  While The Bible tells us that we cannot obtain righteousness by the works of our hands, we are to pursue righteousness.

1 Timothy 6:11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, 14 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will display at the proper time- he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in the unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.  To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.