Righteousness

All people languish under the load of sin.  All people face death – the punishment for sin.  God’s heart is that all people be saved which is to turn from their way of greed, vengeance, rebellion, selfishness and anger and find the true life He offers!

Ezekiel 33:10-11, “Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel:  Thus you say, “If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?” Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

It is the job of God’s people to clearly declare God’s truth.  Such truth is not what self-righteous people want to hear.  All man’s righteousnesses will fail man – for sins, any sin, will render any and all of man’s righteousness corrupt.

Ezekiel 33:12-13, “Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people: “The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.’  When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die.”

For those who turn from their will and way and show a true repentance, they shall live.

Ezekiel 33:14-16, Again, when I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right, if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die.  None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live.

Those who are given to their goodness and their personal plan of salvation, accuse God of wrong.  “Righteous” people doing wrong are not saved, while “wicked” people doing right are saved.  God will judge on their works in perfect righteousness.

Ezekiel 33:17-20, “Yet the children of your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ But it is their way which is not fair! When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die because of it.  But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he shall live because of it.  Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ O house of Israel, I will judge every one of you according to his own ways.”

The one and only means to the righteousness that is acceptable before God is found in Jesus.

Romans 3:22, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.

4:3, For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

4:5, But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

4:6, blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works

Titus 3:5, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.