Righteousness

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us … righteousness...

1 Corinthians 1:30

Righteousness is a Bible word. It is almost never used outside of a religious context so the unchurched usually don’t have a clue to what it means. As a youth speaker, I try to make very simple definitions that young pagans can instantly understand and remember.

I define righteousness as “the opposite of wrongseousness.” Now, nobody has ever heard the word wrongseousness before but as soon as they have, they can understand righteousness. Righteousness is not being wrong; it must be being and doing right.

          If the truth were known, we’re all wrongseous. “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one’” (Romans 3:10-12).

As we were growing up, my Dad had a rather crude but pragmatic bit of advice for us kids: “Do the best you can! It will be bad enough.” The Bible says that “All our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Even the very best we can do falls far short of the glory of God.

The apostle Peter addressed his second letter “To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ”(2 Peter 1:1). We are righteous because Jesus supplies us with His righteousness. The same grace that saves us also changes us and makes us righteous.

The fancy, theological term for being made righteous is “sanctification” and the process is summed up in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” We can simplify this even more; if we’re in Christ, we become righteous because Christ Jesus is our Righteousness.