Are you a righteous person?
The word of God says:
Romans 3:10-12 “As it is written, there is no one righteous- no not one, There is no one who understands, no one who seeks after God.” All have turned aside; together they have become worthless. There is no one who does good-no not even one.”
Even when our good deeds are performed from the purest of motives, unless that motivation is to glorify the name of Yeshua, those deeds are completely self-righteous. For example, modifying my behavior to make an effort to eat healthy food is actually very good for me but a self-righteous act because the real motivation wasn’t out of conviction from the Holy Spirit, but to simply appear healthier to myself and others. It seems pure enough, right?
When God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, He gave them the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) through his servant, Moses. The reason He gave them these teachings is because they had no sense of right or wrong after living in Egypt for over 420 years in slavery. In fact, they assimilated into the culture. Is this any different from today? How many Christians assimilate? He wanted to separate them and teach them His will and His ways and how-to live-in obedience. He wanted to teach them what it means to live righteously. By living righteously, we understand what it means to NOT live righteously!
Deuteronomy 6:25 “And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us”.
The Torah is the story of God delivering, restoring, and establishing a covenant with His people. Torah stands for teaching. However, because of their hardened hearts of stone, they constantly rebelled against God’s law. They rejected the teaching of the Lord. The prophet Ezekiel says that one day God would give them a new heart in order to obey His law.
Ezekiel 11:19 “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them.
For them to obey the law and produce righteousness, they needed a new heart to replace their hearts of stone. They needed a heart that would desire God and delight in His Torah rather than continue in wickedness.
Just like all of us today, the Israelites were incapable changing their own hearts, so how would God provide a way for our hearts to be changed?
His name is Yeshua, the Son of God, God Himself and the Son of Man. God accepts us through the shed blood of Yeshua, once we accept Him.
Romans 10:4 “For Messiah is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
I believe that when God looks down on His people, He sees us covered in the righteousness of Yeshua. It was the work on the cross that provided a way for us to be righteous. He sees us justified through Yeshua’s righteousness.
I Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
This is the good news of the Gospel of Messiah. We don’t have to work and try and produce our own righteousness, Yeshua has completed the work on the cross. Although, it should be our daily goal to be righteous.
But can we be righteous? Yes, I believe there is a way for us to be righteous. To pursue righteousness means to turn away from our natural, sinful desires, and turn to Messiah and His perfect and righteous ways. Through obedience to Him, God is preparing us for eternal life with Him—aligning us with our righteousness through Messiah, Yeshua.
We can rest in the fact that God sovereignly works everything for the good of His people, including restoring us through the righteousness of His Son. Our righteousness begins in Messiah and is completed in Messiah.
Follow Him and pursue it daily.
Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Thank you, Father, that you have created each and every one of us to have a desire to seek after you and your righteousness. We can do nothing on our own, but we can do all things through Messiah who gives us strength. Give us the ability to choose righteousness over acts of selfishness and to strengthen our reserve every day. We love you Lord and want to serve you wholeheartedly in every area of our lives. Change our heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Amen.
Let me know how these blogs minister to you. I would love to hear from you.
Blessings to Everyone!
Joyce
Unless otherwise notated, Scripture quotations are from the Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society. All rights reserved
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