92. Righteousness
1 Corinthians 1:30b …and righteousness….
Christ is made unto us righteousness, as well as wisdom. Righteousness should be a driving need for all of us, a goal to strive for with all our might and energy, a hope wished for with every fiber of our being. Unfortunately, it is not. Righteousness is not something most of us seek for with all our heart. We don’t even think of it as something missing. We don’t even think about righteousness at all, if we even know what it means.
But it should be important. Righteousness is desperately lacking in all of our lives. It is a need that we cannot live without. We should feel miserable because we are not righteous; we don’t even come close. The reason is that “without holiness no one shall see God.” God turns His back and He can have nothing to do with us unless we are righteous, that is, perfectly holy in thought, word, and deed. Instead, every one of us knows how to quote the saying, “Well, nobody’s perfect.” We also mock and ridicule those who are self-righteous and holier-than-thou. We are prone to be content with our sin, guilt, shame and utter sinfulness.
We know that often we have issues and problems, troubles and sorrows, worries and anxieties, but we seldom attribute the cause to our own sin and lack of righteousness. When bad things happen we may blame God instead of blaming the proper cause, the lack of God. When righteousness is missing, God is missing. When God is missing, all kinds of bad things happen. The cause of evil is the absence of God, not the presence of God. When bad things are happening or threatening we need to seek God and His righteousness by repentance and faith in the Gospel. But sadly, righteousness is not sought or even thought. How can we solve our problems if we don’t even know or care about what the problem is, a lack of righteousness?
We know Jesus says [Mathew 6:33], “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.” But when we need to do it we don’t do it. We seek the kingdoms and rulers and governments and institutions of the world for answers, and then we wonder why things don’t get better. But the Good News is: Jesus is made unto us righteousness. We are declared righteous by faith for Christ’s sake, and it is a free gift. So seek Him. Seeking righteousness does not mean trying to be better. Trying to be righteous will be an eternal frustration. Finding righteousness, finding God, finding answers, will be forever impossible until God finds us by giving righteousness through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for Christ is our righteousness. Seeking righteousness means believing in Jesus. Need Him!