Good News #141: I Am Sure of This: My Righteousness Comes From Jesus Alone and None From Myself!
Did you know that all humanity’s good works will never pass heaven’s standards of righteousness?
Our best efforts at doing good and obeying God will always fall short… simply because we are all born in Adam’s sin… we are born sinners and everything produced by us will always be tainted and unclean…
Isaiah 64:6 puts it this way…
But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags…
This is why in the old covenant of the law, God instituted a way to get temporary covering for sins through the shedding of the blood of the animal sacrifices… yet these animals also have tainted blood… all of creation fell after Adam fell in the garden…
So no matter what, humanity in and of himself even through the animal sacrifices remains unrighteous, regardless of how hard humanity tries to observe the law, obey the commandments and stick to a very rigid observance of God’s statutes and ordinances…
This is why Jesus said in Matthew 5:20…
“For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus wasn’t saying to do more than the scribes and Pharisees who maintained a strict observance of the law and the commandments. Jesus is saying there is a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness produced by human effort… which is God’s righteousness… His righteousness, that has nothing to do with human effort…
God’s righteousness is not something man can achieve, earn or pay for… it is something to be received…
Romans 5:17 calls it “the gift of righteousness”… and this gift is not a what… but a Who — a Person — our Lord Jesus Christ.
The gospel is this — The moment you receive Jesus, you received His righteousness… it is imputed to you legally and justly because His death is the legal payment for this to be so.
And because your righteousness is The Person of our Lord Jesus Christ who lives an eternal life… The Father sees you as righteous as His Son eternally and permanently, apart from your deeds.
Whatta gracious God we have!
✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨
In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely;
Now this is His name by which He will be called:
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.Jeremiah 23:6
