He Is Our Righteousness

MP900401980JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU The Lord Our Righteousness" From "tsidek" (straight, stiff, balanced - as on scales - full weight, justice, right, righteous, declared innocent.)  When combined…Jehovah it can be translated as "The Lord Who is our Righteousness."

The Webster dictionary describes righteous as (1)acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin (2a)morally right or justifiable (2b)arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality.

As I ponder the word righteous, knowing that God calls me to righteousness, I quickly realize that I can not be righteous apart from Him.

I can strive to be good, to do good. I can try to live a moral life, to live in a right way. Done in my own strength all these things will fail. I will fail. I can not, even on my best day, be completely free from sin. I can not keep the law if the upholding of it depended solely on me.

Why? I was born in sin and my heart desires to sin. My flesh wants it’s own way. My life may appear good and right but apart from accepting Christ as Lord of my life I can never be wholly righteous.

The Psalmist tells us “blessed are those who keep justice, Who practice righteousness at all times.” (Ps 106:3) So what hope do I have if all my “righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Is 64:6) Do not fear, God has not set us up to fail. In fact the answer is found in His name.

The beauty of our Jehovah-Tsidkenu is that He is telling us that He IS our righteousness. Don’t you just love that! The Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth HE is our righteousness. God through His Son is our righteousness.

2 Cor 5:21 says that, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” When I confessed my sins and accept Jesus Christ into my life to be Lord over it all God  no longer sees my sin. He does not recognize me according to my flesh. No, He sees me through the righteousness of Christ." “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Rom 8:10

So I am declared righteous, not because I have done anything worthy to be called righteous, but because God sees the righteousness of Christ instead of my feeble attempts at being good. I gain the righteousness of God when with my mouth I “…confess that Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;” Rom 10:9

“…for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED." Roms 10:10,11

Is God your God of righteousness? Have you believed in your heart and confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord? Remember there is NO righteousness apart from God. We may think we are good and do good things but all our righteousness and goodness is worthless.

 

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in 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, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death ; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Phil 3:8-11

 

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