The most important question a man or women must ask and must have answered correctly before they leave this world and enter eternity, is the question how a sinful man/woman can be made right with God (Job 9:1-2)? How can we stand before a Holy, just and righteous God, the infinitely glorious creator and sovereign ruler of the universe, which each of us will do immediately upon our death (Hebrews 9:27), and not have to fear Him saying to us through an angry countenance – depart from me you worker of iniquity into the hell that was prepared for the devil and His angels (Matthew 7:23) (Matthew 25:41), and instead rest assured that when that day comes we can stand before this holy and righteous God and have good reason to believe that with a smiling countenance He will say well done good and faithful servant – enter into the joy of your Lord – the Kingdom that was prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:21) (Matthew 25:34)?
We may each formulate the question differently such as How can I be saved (Acts 16:30)?, or What must I do to inherit eternal life (Mark 10:17)?, or what must I do to go to Heaven and not Hell?
Some of us have deceived ourselves into believing that we are basically good people whose goodness is enough to merit God’s love, acceptance and favor, and we have little concern that we will go anyplace but to Heaven when we die. There are others of us who believe God will accept us into Heaven on the basis of our sincere efforts to be good, whatever good might mean to us. There are others who believe that God marks on a curve – that if our good deeds outweigh are bad we will be accepted by God into Heaven when we die.
Then there are the thousands of religions in this world, each with their own unique truth claim as to what a man or women must do to become right with God. They essentially all believe that it is what we do or do not do that makes us right with God and welcomed into a desirable afterlife. It may be by keeping certain laws and commandments, doing charitable works or works of penance, participating in certain religious rituals and ceremonies, saying certain prayers, achieving prescribed levels of enlightenment of the soul through meditation and fasting and so on.
According to the Bible, however, there is only one correct answer to this most important of all questions, only one means, one basis by which a man or women can be made right with God, enter God’s Kingdom, be saved from everlasting torment in Hell and qualify for everlasting joy in Heaven. And it is not a matter of what we must do, but a matter of what we must have, which according to Romans 3:21-26 is the righteousness of God – the moral perfection that only God has (2 Samuel 22:31), a righteousness that is accredited, endowed, imputed to us as a gift which we receive through faith in Jesus as our Savior and Lord (Romans 5:15-19). Such faith is also a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Righteousness is the term used throughout the Bible to represent God’s eternal, essential nature and character, (Deuteronomy 32:3-4) (Psalm 11:7). Righteousness is the expression of God’s holiness (Isaiah 6:1-3), of His moral purity and perfection, His commitment to perfect justice (Isaiah 30:18), to doing what is right and just in regard to both upholding the worth, the infinite value of His glory (the perfections of His being), and in promoting the good of His creation in Him. Thus, His righteousness also includes the justness or rightness of His judgment and punishment of those who oppose or disdain His person and purposes (Psalm 19:9) (Revelation 16:4-7) (Revelation 19:1-2), who engage in what the Bible refers to as sin.
And the Bible tells us that all mankind are guilty of sin, (Romans 3:23) beginning with Adam’s disobedience to God’s one commandment (Genesis 2:16-17). And thus, all of mankind has become what the Bible refers to as unrighteous (I John 5:17), unfit to live in God’s presence (Psalm 5:4) and subject to His just judgement and wrath (Romans 1:18) (Psalm 11:6). And the worst part of it is that there is nothing we in ourselves can do about it (Romans 3:20) (Isaiah 64:6), primarily because, as sinful men and women, God’s standard of righteousness is beyond our reach (Matthew 5:48) (Psalm 24:3-6). And, it would appear from scripture, that any and all efforts on our part to achieve this righteousness, apart from faith in Christ (Galatians 2:16), is condemned by God as the ultimate expression of our pride (Luke 18:9-14) (Matthew 23:13-14) (Matthew 7:21-23).
However, there is good news, what the Apostle Paul refers to in Romans 1:16-17 as the “gospel”, which reveals that there is another aspect of the righteousness of God, which is His saving righteousness (Psalm 98:2-3) (Jeremiah 23:5-6). This righteousness is revealed in and received through faith in the person and work of God the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus willingly and gladly comes into this world of condemned sinners as a man, to do for us what we could never do for ourselves.
He lives the perfectly righteous life God requires of a man or woman to be accepted by God and to enter Heaven (Psalm 24:3-6) (1 John 3:5). He perfectly obeys God the Father’s will for His life (John 8:29) (Philippians 2:8) wherein He will be unjustly sentenced to die on a Roman cross, where He will suffer in His body and soul, the wrath, justice and judgement of God that you and I deserve, so that God could justify (Isaiah 53:11), declare as righteous, all who are joined to Jesus by faith. (Philippians 3:8-11) (Galatians 2:20).
On the cross, Jesus exchanged our sin for His perfect righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21), so that God no longer sees us as sinners as we are now clothed in the righteousness of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (Isaiah 61:10) (Revelation 7:9), being perfected in Him (Hebrews 10:14) by the Holy Spirit, so that when we stand before our Holy and Righteous God on that day (Hebrews 9:27), we will not hear depart from me you worker of iniquity into the Hell that was prepared for the devil and His angels, but rather well done good and faithful servant – enter into the joy of your Lord – the Kingdom that was prepared for you from the foundation of the world – the eternal domain of “just men made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23).
Enjoy the wonderful hymn that magnifies God’s saving righteousness, The Solid Rock
Grace and Peace ×