[If you missed yesterday’s post…I strongly encourage you to read it before wading in to today’s post. Just saying… ;-) ]

Trying to navigate through life in this dark world that can be challenging, if not rather daunting and intimidating. For others, it’s downright scary. Many turn to temporal distractions to occupy their affections so as not to have to deal with reality. Others, are so overwhelmed by trying to find their way that they succumb to numbing their own fears and pain and yes, even ‘demons’ with whatever they can get their hands on. Sadly, that route usually leads to even more pain and darkness and eventual death, oftentimes, self-inflicted. Jesus stated plainly… people who walk in darkness don’t know where they are going. (John 12:35-36)

For the unbeliever, who does not know God, their creator, and the creator of this world, life can be a twisted game of chance that makes no sense whatsoever. They just try to get through this life without blowing themselves up, as if traversing a minefield of sorts.

Then there is the ‘religious’ crowd who hold firmly to a plethora of versions of ‘god’ wrapped up and clothed in all kinds of religious activities, superstitions and hopeful wishing. Truth be told, it is just another form of ‘game of chance’ where one ‘acknowledges a higher power’ whom they constantly are trying to appease. The apostle, Paul, ran into these types frequently, and more notably in Athens where he pointed out their practice to worshiping the ‘unknown God’. (Acts 17:22-31) And let’s not forget all those deceived folks in Matt. 7:22 either.

You should read that passage (in Acts 17) given it tells us plainly that God desires that we might seek after Him given He is not far from us and is willing to lead and guide us safely through this life. When Jesus began His earthly ministry, He looked upon the afflicted and weary people as ‘sheep with no shepherd’. (Matt. 9:36). This would fall in line with Isaiah’s assessment that declared ‘all we like sheep have gone astray’. (Isa. 53:6). And Jesus did not come to condemn us, rather to save us and lead us out of darkness into true living (John 10:10). But we had to be willing first, to come to Him. (John 3:17; 5:40)

We are encouraged in Proverbs to ‘Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; and in ALL your ways, acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (3:5-6).

That my friends, is an incredible promise of hope. And it is echoed by the psalmist who wrote that the ‘steps of a righteous man are ordered or directed by the Lord, and He delights in his way.” (Ps. 37:23)

Why would anyone NOT want a loving God who knows all…the past, the present, and the future, who is the Maker of heaven and earth…to not guide us through this world of darkness? (Acts 26:18) He makes it known here that He will indeed direct our steps. But…to whom…is this promise made to there in Ps. 37:23? The ‘righteous man’. And Who or what…is a ‘righteous’ person? Before we address that, let’s read further in that text:

“I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the ‘righteous’ forsaken, nor his descendants begging for bread…as his descendants are blessed.” (37:25). You might just keep reading there in your Bible and underline those promises made to the ‘righteous’…how they will ‘inherit the land’ (29) and how ‘the law of his God is in his heart and none of his steps shall slide’. (31)

Yesterday, we waded in to this topic of what it means to be ‘righteous’ and how one is ‘made righteous’. Unfortunately, we have reduced the process of ‘becoming righteous’ to a coin-flip of sorts…you are either made righteous because of things you do or because of words you say; i.e. “I believe in Jesus, therefore God sees me as righteous".

All I am wanting to do here is for us to take a step back from those doctrines we have been taught so that we might examine further, other verses that did not fit in with many of those doctrines. If we are not careful, we can end up discarding more truth from God’s word…which is never a good idea.

In order to keep the definition of righteousness simple here, I offered up this assessment where it means to be ‘in right standing with God’ (as in all is well with your soul) and when we refer to God’s righteousness, me are talking about ‘what is right in His eyes, not ours’. (Deut. 12:8; Judges 17:6)

Please hang with me here…I know you face so many pressing issues in this life and have many demands placed on you. Trying to make ends meet in this world/life for example, can be cumbersome and literally ‘choke’ us to death. (Mark 4:19). Yet, listen to this appeal made my Jesus when He was teaching the multitudes there in Matt. 6:25-33. Would you take a moment and go read that please?

God is wanting to convey to you that He knows where you are at and what concerns you the most these days. Not only does He assure us there He knows what we are worrying about (and need not be), He even promises us that our Father in heaven knows…we have need of these things and that IF….IF…IF…we would…”Seek first the kingdom of God and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS…that all these other things would be added to us.” (6:33)

Most of us have read or heard that verse and I bet you usually hear that first part about what we are to seek…yet maybe skim over that second part, the one about seeking ‘His righteousness’. I speak from personal experience now…having memorized and quoted that verse over the years…wanting to cash in on that promise that God would supply all my needs if I just put His kingdom first. I would then equate ‘His kingdom’ to being ‘more faithful to church’ and wearing myself out trying to please God …by pleasing men who I assumed were leaders in the kingdom. Hence, my introduction and long history of getting wrapped up in religious systems.

But it is noteworthy here that Jesus specified by offering up clarification that seeking first…the kingdom of God means we need to be concerned with seeking God’s righteousness, as opposed to doing what is right in our own eyes or the eyes of others. And that is pretty much what this world teaches us to do...especially when we have ‘no king’ governing us. (Judges 17:6)

I simply cannot stress enough the importance of understanding just what God’s righteousness is, and how we might find it and walk in it so as to experience all the promises made to those who are ‘made righteous’ through our faith in Jesus Christ.

God has promised to meet all the needs of those who seek first, His righteousness. He has promised to order and direct our steps, as we have read. And we are told that in the end, it will be the ‘righteous who enter eternal life’. (Matt. 25:46)

But make no mistake about it…one is not ‘made righteous’ because of ‘things they do’, nor are they made righteous because of ‘words they say professing what they believe’. I know, it sounds a bit like a paradox; especially if we’ve only been taught it can only be ‘heads or tails’. (Yesterday's post)

Again, I feel a need and compelling to take this slow and help us sort out fact from fiction. It can be challenging, at best, to have to first ‘unlearn’ things before we can…learn things. And I have no problem stating that this concept of God’s righteousness has truly been twisted and perverted when it comes to how we have learned about it and what it means to us and for us.

How’s this for starters: “The Lord reigns…and Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.” (Ps. 92:1-2). And what do we know about the importance of foundations? - If we get those wrong, everything else will be out of whack. Why Jesus even wrapped up His ‘Sermon on the Mount’ illustrating this very thing and what happens with the floods come to test those foundations. And it was not a matter of ‘if’ the floods came, but when. (Matt. 7:24-27)

So let’s peek at a passage in Isaiah 51 where we hear God communicate this: “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, you people in whose heart is My law: Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but My righteousness will be forever and My salvation from generation to generation.” (51:7-8)

For now, two key truths stand out here: 1- God equates or draws a connection with His righteousness and His law. Nothing new there. (Deut. 6:25). And 2- those who oppose or disagree with this assessment…their decay/destruction is eminent and will be gradual to the point one might not even notice or be aware of it given the word picture used here with worms and moths. (you also see this example used by Jesus in the NT where he speaks of moths and worms and rust to describe how things/people end up perishing).

I would submit to you for your consideration that what the “church” at large today has done with God’s righteousness is we determined it is unattainable to achieve (even though Jesus tells us to seek it first above all things). In other words, it is simply way too hard for anyone to even come close to living up to it. “How can these things be?”

So what we did is what is common in our education systems today…we opted for ‘grading on a curve’. I think we all know what that entails? Let’s throw out the standard grading system and base our assessments by comparing ourselves with ourselves. That way we give more people a chance to ‘pass the test’ and feel less bad about themselves.

Friends…therein lies the problem. God never changed. Nor did he ‘lower the bar’ for ‘passing. On the contrary…when you read the words of Jesus in Matt. 5:17-48, He did just that: He ‘raised the bar’; and the only way any of us have a chance of ‘passing’…is we have to surrender our entire heart to Him, take up a cross and learn to follow Him; as in ‘abide in Him’. That’s what Jesus came to do…He came to empower us with His grace...that we too…might ‘fulfill all righteousness’ and ‘all the righteous requirements of the law’ (Rom. 8:4). Because that is what people who abide in Christ will do. Let no one deceive you otherwise: 1 John 3:7…