Gift of Righteousness

 

Self-Righteous people!  Yes, you know those people – the ones that are always right.  Their way is the ‘right’ way, your way, not so much.  Righteous impedes into the moralistic side, how one should live their life, how they should act.  Self-righteous people tend to judge others for living their lives differently than they “ought” to live their lives – making those around them feel inferior.  Now that I have explained this a bit more, do you know anyone who may be self-righteous?  More importantly, do you fall into this arena?

Probably one of the greatest examples of self-righteous people comes from the Bible.  The Pharisees demonstrated self-righteousness at its finest.  They believed that they practiced strict observance of the law and ceremonies, yet they did so without any regard to the spiritual side of what they were doing.  They looked down upon those that did not observe as they did (such as Jesus when he healed the sick on the Sabaoth) and defined themselves better than others.  Not something to be proud of.

So how can righteousness be a gift from God?  As Christians, we use the word righteous to guide our path on how to morally live our lives.  As Christians, we know we will never be righteous.  We may try to live to the laws God gave us as.  We may try to do right things such as living servant-filled lives, loving others, giving to all, etc.  Yet, what we know is because we are sinners, we will never be righteous people.  No matter how many ‘good works’ we aim for, we will never be righteous in God’s eyes.

Jesus’ gift of righteousness comes from one thing and one thing only, our faith in Jesus Christ.  By believing in Jesus and his salvation, we become righteous in God’s eyes.  Only through faith is that gift given to us.  It is Jesus’ gift of righteousness that reigns over us.  This does not mean we should not try to live our lives by the path provided to us in the Bible.  What we need to possess is a sense of humbleness before God and others, knowing we are not righteous on our own accord, but we are righteous in the name of Jesus.  Praise be to God – the holy and righteous one!

Jesus, we thank you that you have given us the gift of righteousness.  We know that we will never be able to stand before you on our own on the Judgement Day.  Yet, with you beside us, we will be able to stand proudly, knowing that your gift of righteousness prevails.