Obedience and Righteousness
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©  Focus on Jesus.  Focus on Souls.  ©

 

When we accept Jesus as our personal Savior we become righteous.  Jesus is the ultimate virtue of righteousness.  Because we believe in Him we are credited as righteous as God promises us in various Scriptures:

 

Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

 

Habakkuk 2:4 See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright - but the righteous will live by his faith

 

Romans 1:16-17 16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith.”

 

OK, the righteous will live by faith.  How do we continue living by faith and stay in righteousness?  What is God’s righteousness?  Human righteousness often becomes self-righteousness, which is a sin.  How can we remain righteous in God’s sight?  As King David said we’d be judged on our righteousness in Psalm 7:8-9,

 

 8 let the LORD judge the peoples. Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity, O Most High. 9 O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure.

 

‘Righteousness’ seemed a big-deal word and made me nervous when thinking about it. 

 

For the past year and a half, I’ve kept hearing Dr. Charles Blair say, “Righteousness comes from being obedient to the will of God.”  In the Dubai school of ministry, these words finally sank in.  It is not by our own moral values, human will or strength that we achieve righteousness. It is by depending on the Lord (not self), waiting on Him, finding out His desires and obeying His instructions we remain righteous – in God’s eyes.  Holy Spirit brought deeper understanding to Romans chapters three to six and the following verses:

 

Deuteronomy 6: 24-25 24 The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. 25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness."

 

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

 

Romans 6:15-17 15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 

 

I pray that Holy Spirit keeps us in great hunger and thirst for God.  For kingdom's sake and for souls’ sake, we are willing to die to our fleshly desires and ambitions.  As we learn to obey God, we will be rewarded by His glory, His presence, His power and His abundance.  And, we will be the righteous bride ready for her soon comming King.