Jesus Christ is our Righteousness

“For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt” (Romans 4:3-4).

Righteousness means morally right or justifiable, but some of its synonyms help us more: blameless, guiltless, holy, innocent, just, sinless.

When God revealed himself as JEHOVAH TSIDKENU "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS", in the Old Testament (Jeremiah 23:5-8) the people were anything but sinless and guiltless. In fact, they were in the process of being hauled off into exile and captivity for their constant and longstanding sin, idolatry, and unfaithfulness to the Lord.

We recognize and understand God to be benevolent, which means He is kind, caring, compassionate, generous, giving and munificent. We say it all the time "God is good." This belief is revealed to us through Scripture, His revealed truth. The purpose of revealed truth is to familiarize us with the character and attributes of God, to inundate our lives and to pervade and prevade all aspects of human life: spiritual, natural, social, economical, political, psychological, emotional, and philosophical. This revelation knowledge, and understanding must be allowed to, and has to transcend every aspect and barrier of our lives.

Righteousness is an attribute of God. When we think of the attributes of God, there are those that are specific to God, and Him alone. When we consider what is needed to communicate with God, sinlessness, and righteousness are prerequisites. We need righteousness to please God, and Jesus Christ gave us His, He (imputed) His righteousness to grant us access to God the Father. When the Bible tells us that God made man in His image and likeness, He also gave man the attributes which were His, but were and are communicable.

These are attributes that He can share with man. He did not give man His attributes that could not be shared. He didn't create man to be all-powerful. Man will never be omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), omnipresent (everywhere present at the same time), immutable (changeless). These are all attributes that we can only communicate to others verbally and through writing about God. We are finite, and limited because we do not possess these attributes, only the sovereign God does.

The Greek word righteousness found in Romans 4, is the word dikaiosune, pronounced dik-ah-yos-oo-nay, it means equity of character or act of righteousness.

Righteousness is imputed to us as we believe God; we access it through and by our faith. Imputed means credited, attributed, ascribed, assigned, accredited, infused and imparted. The impartation of God’s righteousness is what informs our souls and minds of the measures we need for a prosperous operating value system, contingent upon principles that shape all of our values. Our spiritual and soul operating systems need righteousness flowing like living waters. Every thought needs the righteousness of God to overthrow unrighteous thinking and so that we comply with continuity of renewing our minds by changing our thinking to the imputed righteousness God has given us. It is in our accounts, are we saving it or spending it by using it as we occupy until He returns. God shifted us out of sin and placed us in the righteousness of Christ Jesus. He changed our garments from filthy and sin soiled to clean and righteous. We are wearing the mantle of Jesus Christ, He covers our inabilities to stand before God sin free. Blessed be the name of Jesus!

How exactly is the Lord our righteousness? Since every one of us except Jesus has sinned, we have no right to stand before God and say; "Here I am Lord, right, just, sinless and blameless. I'm innocent God." But Jesus can stand before the Father and say all those things. So by carrying our sins on the cross, He is letting us ride on his righteousness. He can say to the Father; "I've got the blood wrought Body of Christ covered. Don't look at her sin because I paid for it and I want you to see her as blameless." The Father accepts Jesus' righteousness as if it were ours.

Righteousness embodies the holistic elements of all that is right. Free will is another way of assessing the right to choice. Free will doesn’t explain the right in choosing; however it does zoom in on determination. Will is determination and our choices are dependent upon how determined we are to change and transform by renewing our minds. Our entire soul system or the operating system of our souls must be renewed and changed by the power of God, working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure and righteousness pleases God.

We are born again with the built in desire to please God. What other purpose is there to being born again from above, but to be pleasing to God. We are not born again to please others. We are exclusively God’s and our relationships with Him spill over and onto our relationships with others. The commandment is for us to love God with all of our hearts, minds, souls and strength, and from our love for God emanates the love for neighbors, others and ourselves. Imputed!

The soul’s operating system now incorporates our values. Values are what we deem are important to us. Righteousness encompasses and includes all the principles we need to make it successful, and should be important to us every day and in every way. We should place value on what we think; this is why living righteousness is of the utmost importance. We should value what we stand for, we stand for righteousness because of Jesus Christ, therefore we stand on the side of God in Christ. We should be willing to pay the price for what we value, even when it means losing opportunities because you refuse to compromise righteousness on any level and anywhere. In the world, on the job, at home, in church and everywhere in the earth. If it is of the righteousness of God, we should take a stand and learn the value of standing on His side.

The questions we must ask ourselves is who or what creates our values? What is important to us, and what we stand for, and what price are we willing to pay, can all be the premises, concepts, results that are formed by our cultures, parents, philosophies that were born out of someone else’s failures, our values are created by God through Christ where there is no occasion to failure. God can never fail!

The value system we have been given is out of Jesus’ success and the victory He has bestowed upon us. Jesus successfully met the requirement of righteousness needed to revoke the wrath of God which was upon sinners. Now as a result, we can have righteous ideas, intents, motives, and desires because they are tried by the sinlessness of Jesus Christ. If we only do it because we will receive a blessing, we will miss out on the discipline we need to abolish values that are not of God. What will a poor attitude cost you? Poor attitudes are what spiritual poor folk entertain, and are not what the rich in spirit should ever desire. Jesus Christ's righteousness is wealth that He has given to us. The Kingdom of God and Heaven are places where wealth and riches flow like fountains. Seeking the values and purposes of God is the path to eternal success.

Righteousness is an asset, and it is of value to us for prosperity in spirit, soul and every way, so that we can enter the Kingdom of God where righteousness reigns supremely, is our emphatic. The values we need to be operating in are imperative in seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. There are principles necessary to experientially live this value of righteousness and possess it and to have it possess us. We need the principle of cleanliness, and purity ruling and reigning inside of us, motivating every intention to comply with the desire to follow Christ and His righteousness.

Righteousness is the garment we wear to enter the presence of the Honorable and Holy Father. We put it on to enter His presence so that He doesn't see our unrighteousness or sin but the righteousness of Jesus Christ through His shed blood. We put on righteousness every time we enter prayer as we acknowledge the shed blood of Christ for our own lives. We need His sinlessness to utter a prayer and be heard by the Father. The righteousness of Christ is not something we can ignore.

We have a value system which consist of precepts, righteousness is the focal value referenced in this hub. There are principles which determine the value of righteousness, and the value we place on our imputed righteousness. Jesus Christ being the culmination of this value.

Righteousness is a precious gift through Jesus Christ. It matters what value we as individuals place on it. What does the imputted righteousness of Christ mean to you personally? Do you value it? Then it is a core value, and it is the theme of your life. Righteousness gives us the right to choose what is right. Free will didn't give us the right to choose only righteousness, it gave us the freedom to choose either; to know and choose good and evil.

Life in Christ doesn't give us a determination/will to want or desire to know the evil. Jesus Christ cancelled the determination to want to live evil or manevolent and gave us His righteousness to wear every time we meet with the Heavenly Father. Wearing righteousness is like wearing clothing fit for a King and royalty alone. Choosing malice and or any of the works of the flesh and unrighteousness are choosing rags over the true riches of God. We can't ever earn righteousness through any of our deeds. The benevolence of God pours grace into our accounts to assist us in accepting only the righteousness of Christ.

The Bible gives and informs us of our values. God created the value system He wanted us to have. The picture above of the world as a system pending the plug making the connection to operate is a figurative illustration, it is visually opportune in understanding God's righteousness infusing us in the world and His righteousness is made available to all through Jesus Christ. The insertion of the plug into the system will produce a righteous operating system that is only righteousness through Christ Jesus. The imputed righteousness of God through Jesus Christ is like the dynamics in this picture.

Do we deem righteousness of great price? If yes, so then, if we value righteousness the principles which govern our lives are to think right, act right, perform what is right, speak right, emote right, have a memory full of what is right, reason righteously, judge righteous judgment, imagine what is right, and live right: those are all principles, but the value is righteousness, and a righteous soul is our intentional goal. Imputed means has been placed in our individual accounts, whether we are using it to operate our world view or values is up to each one of us.

We are exhorted, and warned to beware of the unrighteousness of manevolence and unleavened bread in Scripture, and to put away malice. We receive benevolence from God, so where is there any room to give manevolence to others. Freely we have received, we must freely give.

The Apostle James told us that it was and is possible to in one breath praise God, and in the next breath curse man, which speaks of the unrighteousness of manevolence. The characteristics of manevolence are wishing evil or harm to another or others; showing ill will, malicious, self failure that makes one manevolent to those who are successful; having and showing or arising from intense vicious ill will, spite or intense hatred. Often having an evil or harmful influence. There is no righteousness in malice or manevolence. These characteristics hinder our relationship with God and we are told to put them away. When we put them away, we will need the righteousness of Christ to stand and to teach us how to align every aspect our lives to it. Jesus didn't have any malice or manevolence, why should I?

"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (Ephesians 4:31-32).

Guard your heart with all diligence, but, don't lie to yourself if and when you see its rotten fruits. What would you do with a rotten fruit naturally? You would more than likely discard it or throw it away. Would you feed a rotten fruit to others, no they can more than likely smell the rot. This concept is not different with spiritual fruits, discernment is in a way our spiritual smell. You would have to think about the motive and intent of someone who would try to give you rotten fruit to eat. Change the root to righteousness, and you will change the fruit to bring forth righteousness. Do what the Scripture counsels put it away and don't allow manevolence to smell up your life. It is subtle, forgive others and release yourself. Some people hold on to un-forgiveness like it is a treasure, or fruitful. Let it go! Remember the words of Jesus, replay, rewind them, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. That's the cry of the righteous one. What's your cry?

How does one praise God and curse man? Is cursing man righteous? You answer that. It is easy if you do not watch out for what you think and speak. God's will is good, He doesn't want us to fail; He took care of the fall through Jesus Christ. We didn't even have to work for righteousness, it was given to us to communicate with the Father and have audience with Him. Why should we want any ill will to come to anyone if that is not the will of God? Our minds are being renewed and we are being transformed to prove what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Poor words about others come from manevolence and poverty, Jesus said, from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Does speaking against and not for someone sound like the flow of abundance?

There is a difference between values and principles. Values are what we hold dear and what is important to us. A principle is what you do or don't do in order to live out that value. All that is required of us to live out righteousness is to have faith in the Godhead and the Word, and when we believe in Christ, He imputes His righteousness to us through our faith. See the illustration as a pending righteousness infusion through the power of the Holy Spirit, it is only figurative.

Value is a term that expresses the concept of worth in general, and it is thought to be connected to reasons for certain practices, policies or actions. The concept can be understood as a verb, as an adjective, or as a substantive noun. So, "I value my life" is the verbal sense, which expresses a valuation. "My life is valuable" is an adjectival use of the term. "My values are all messed up" is the substantive use of the concept.

A value system is in essence the ordering and prioritization of the ethical and ideological values that an individual or society holds. While two individuals or groups may share a set of common values, they may differ in their determination of which values in that set have precedence over others. The two individuals or groups are said to have different value systems, even though they may have many values in common, if their prioritization of values differs, or if there are different exceptions they attach to these values. Groups and individuals whose differing value systems have many values in common may still wind up in conflict, ideological or physical, with each other, because of the differences in their value systems. People with differing value systems will thus disagree on the rightness or wrongness of certain actions, both in the abstract and in specific circumstances. In essence, a value system (if sufficiently well-defined) is a formalization of a moral code.

The value system of the world system is deteriorating by degrees. It is a system that can no longer provide us with what we need to operate in righteousness. The secular world may have a residual degree of values which appear familiar but the power to stand for what is right without compromise has vanished. We as believers can comprehend the righteousness it takes to conquer the dominion of sin through Jesus Christ.

Values

In order to define value systems, we need to define the characteristics of values that could be represented in a value system. The values that a group or person holds may fall into several different categories. The ones that usually concern us in the area of value systems are the ethical and the ideological.

• Ethical values may be thought of as those values which serve to distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong, and moral and immoral. At a societal level, these values frequently form a basis for what is permitted and what is prohibited.

• Ideological values deal with the broader or more abstract areas of politics, religion, economics, and social mores. In theory, the broader ideological values should derive logically as natural consequences of the particulars of fundamental ethical values and their prioritizations. But although ideally a value system ought to be consistent, oftentimes this is not the case. Both ethical and ideological values should come from the Word of God.

All sin and unrighteousness and the lifestyles it produces are incompatible with the biblical living we are taught. We hold to the biblical authority of this lifestyle. Incompatible means that it is not capable of existing together in harmony with righteousness. Biblical history and the history of world both teach us that no great society that has ever sanctioned unconstrained sin has survived. From the Bible we establish a foundational way of thinking, that influences everything about us. This is the view God has given us to live in the world, but not of it. We depend on God's truths and ways to influence our lives by the principles we get through and by reading and studying the Word of God. The Word of God is our school master.

We are in the world, but the world system doesn’t shape our values system. We need principles that produce core values to be successful in operating in this world. We have a world view and through the lens of our world view we process information and make decisions, whether the experiences are good, bad and ugly. World view is dependent upon your spiritual location, which is seated with Christ Jesus in heavenly places. We are seated with Christ spiritually, but we are positioned and operate in the earth. Our world view is given to us by the Word, and the Spirit of God so that we view the world God's way and believe what He says about it

Through our world view we develop a system of thinking that guides our actions, perceptions, words and choices. We must take the time to intentionally clarify how we see the world, these are our defining moments. The failure to accurately determine through faith in God our stance and use of the value system we have been given and are obtaining through Jesus Christ is a liability to our faith, and not an asset. Successful and prosperous living needs a set of core values only found in God. We can neither operate nor co-operate with God without first placing the utmost value on His righteousness. The stance of righteousness changes our values system. We must check our roots to know if the fruits are in tune with righteousness.

God took a great risk in giving us the right to choose to accept or reject Him. Furthermore, this right to choose would only entail choosing what is right. It is the only right decision and choice, to have faith in and believe God. The wrongful obtained access to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, gave us the choice to choose either. It is wisdom, to only choose the right use of what we know that helps us to make the right decisions, but we would have to distinguish between what is good and evil. This is the reason why God gave us a conscience to guide us in determining right from wrong, as we align our lives with the Word of God. Our renewed minds are essential in order to change how we think, what we think and to perform what is right and good. Righteousness is right standing with God. Righteousness is the key to unlocking our value systems so that our souls may prosper.

Value Systems

As mentioned earlier, a value system is the ordering and prioritization of the ethical and ideological values that an individual or society holds. The specific prioritizations may lead to designated exceptions invoked because one value is deemed more important than another (e.g., "lying is wrong, but lying to save someone else's life is acceptable, because human life is more valuable (more highly valued) than the principle that lying is wrong"). Regardless of whether or not value systems are formed logically, they determine for individuals and societies what actions they are likely to act and how those actions are likely to be justified (or perhaps 'rationalized').

From a biblical standpoint all lying is wrong, there is no reason that can excuse it. It is a commandment that God set in motion. "Thou shalt not bear false witness" means lying is not acceptable, it is considered unrighteousness. We must be on the lookout for value systems that compromise the values God has given us to obey. it is mentioned above that lying to save someone's life would be considered acceptable in society, but that is where the problem would exist with the individual believer who knows the biblical truth concerning lying. Lying to save someone's life won't ever make it right. The end will not justify the means.

Do you start to see how exciting it is to be able to call the Lord, JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU? Yes indeed, JESUS CHRIST OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS! To some this concept is a stumbling block because it seems too good to be true. Yes, I agree that it is simple - simple enough for anyone to understand, but it is not too good to be true. It is just true. Well, you say, what's the catch? The catch is that you have to accept it. It is not forced on anyone. We all continue to have a free will and God desires that our relationship with him is given freely from our heart with love. This name and title for God clearly explains the imputed righteousness we have received, it inculcates that God alone is our righteousness, in and through Christ Jesus, and we have no righteousness of our own that we can use. Our own righteousness apart from God is not trustworthy, and is defined as filthy ole rags. Jesus gave us the right to function in His sinless righteousness every time we pray and we acknowledge the blood He shed for this privilege to commune with the Honorable Holy Father. We stand justified, just as if we never sinned, that’s the righteousness we stand in. Whisper or shout Hallelujah!

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33 KJV).

We have learned during our life in the world system how to place emphasis on the natural aspects of life, which we now have to unlearn how to do, because we learned and shaped a value system which functions in reverse. The spiritual should always be first in order to guide the natural. What we will eat and drink, what will we wear, and where we will live, etc. Jesus supplies us with figurative parallels to distinguish between earthly and spiritual things and suggests that we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first and foremost, and that in doing so all of the natural aspects of our life will be covered. This righteousness He knows firsthand about, it is His own lifestyle. It is the eternal over the temporal; it is God over us and so much more. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness and all other things will be added unto you.

Once we seek the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, which we can only find through and by Christ Jesus, we are ushered into the King’s domain through His Word and Spirit. Once we are in the Kingdom we need to be governed by kingdom principles, and not the principles we once lived by and learned to adapt to in the world. We need our thoughts to be changed, and aligned with God’s principles, we need our minds renewed to understand, know and think right. These are principles which assist us in transforming our minds from sub-standard to standard to produce righteous thinking.

The principles of righteousness are direly necessary to understand, think and perform in accordance with what is right and not wrong. Only the Word of God is successful in helping us to fulfill and not forfeit this endeavor. Why righteousness? Righteousness because it is the value system God has imputed to us to live by, and it is His central theme and agenda. How do we accomplish righteousness? By obeying what is right. For this we need discernment, we have to try spirits to determine if they are of God. We do this by sizing up all principles and precepts by the Scriptures, always asking ourselves what does the Bible teach concerning this or that, so that we have a working knowledge of what is right to perform it in obedience with the counsel we receive through it.

Our value system is being re-shaped, renewed, and refreshed, by the counsels, instructions and directives found in the Word of God. We need a value system which consists of values which are consistent, and in alignment with what God values.

We need a world view that is doctrinally, biblically, and scripturally intact and sound. We see the world at large, what do we think about the way it operates? Are we in agreement with its principles or God’s? We cannot serve God and mammon, either we will love one and hate the other, or vice-versa. To love the world’s view is to be at enmity with God. He has given us a standard of how He views the world, and this where our world view comes from, it is how we perceive the world we live in. Knowing of course, the world would be a much better place if every creature obeyed God. There is no creature that was, is, or ever shall be that would not be better off with God, than without Him.

The loving kindness of God through Jesus Christ is remarkable. Jesus allows us to use His righteousness in order to have a relationship with His Father. I was thinking in terms of possessing something valuable and sharing it with someone else. I would have to deem them worthy, to honor them with the utilization of that item. Jesus died to give us accessibility to the Father. We should treasure and appreciate the honor He has bestowed upon us. Give praise to the Honorable Godhead.

Righteousness is a garment of royalty, we wear it as the kingdom apparel required to enter the Kingdom of God. After we seek first the Kingdom, we then need the core value of righteousness to enter. Can you see the kingdom and the righteousness you’ve been endued with? I hope and pray that you do. Who has ever loved a sinner so much to desire them to be sinless and blameless before a Holy and righteous God by imputing to them their own righteousness? There is no one other than the Honorable Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord our Righteousness. Thank You Lord Jesus for loving us so much to impute and credit our lives with Your mantle of righteousness.