Righteous. (252)

Before digging into our topic, spend some time getting caught up in a segment of Meet the Hosts. The new year is bringing some changes in our personal lives, and new things for the podcast as well. Nathan and Keith also discuss recent happenings in our audio drama and other projects.

Villagescape

Main Topic

Righteousness. What is it exactly? What does it mean, and is there a difference in what people consider to be right, and how God sees it?

Starting with some dictionary definitions, and some scripture we begin to develop the meaning of righteousness, and some traits that are opposite to it. The word righteous appears over 250 times through the Bible, and Keith summarizes a few of the themes that can be found.

In general, righteousness is related to traits as judgment, innocence, purity, goodness, and faithfulness. When people are called righteous, they are said to be favored by God, known by God, walking in the way of God. The righteous endure, have joy, are delivered, or have salvation, and flourish.

When contrasted, the righteous are mentioned opposite of the wicked, liars, those who gnash their teeth, the broken, and those who are put to shame. The wicked are also violent ones, destroyers who will be punished, and will face wrath)

There is a kind of righteousness that belongs to people. It’s imperfect and can be corrupted and lost. We see this when we compare ourselves to others, considering ourselves to be better than someone else. Because we can’t see the thoughts, or hearts of others, our best judgments to carry out righteousness is usually flawed. Even our best righteousness is as dirty rags to God. Use can try to clean up a mess or wash windows with it, but all we do is spread the filth around.

God knows every intention of the heart. He knows exactly how guilty we are and His judgments are always correct. Our punishment or rewards are exactly what we deserve.

Is there any hope? How can we tell if our righteous behavior is even close or on the right track? Read the Bible, and emerge yourself in learning more about his perfect righteousness. The more we are obedient to him, and learn to reflect His character, we can begin to model his righteousness.

the best thing to do is accept that Jesus has paid the price to cover all our shortcomings. Without him, all our righteousness will fail. But with him, he will fill in the gaps where we fall short.

Bible

Here are just a few verses to summarize our discussion today.

Psalm 143:2 Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.

Psalm 145:17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

1John 2:29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

Revelation 15:4 Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Credits

All scripture references on the page are from the English Standard Version (ESV).

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