What Righteousness looks like...Romans 2

What Righteousness looks like…Romans 2 Posted on July 31, 2010 by billrandles (God)Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life, But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness,indignation and wrath,(Romans 2:6-8)

The Infinite, personal God of the Bible, is going to judge the world in Righteousness. The standard is absolute perfection, it could be no less. “The Righteousness that he requires, is the righteousness his righteousness requires him to require…”(anon).

Put aside the question of Jew or Gentile, and consider, what does Righteousness according to God’s standard look like ? What would fruit would a perfect observance of the Torah produce in a person?

Paul, by the Holy Spirit succinctly describes the characteristics of the righteous , as well as the mark of someone who is damned and perhaps doesn’t realise it.

Perfect Righteousness in a person is reflected by total consistency in doing good works. A righteous man always does good.

A man is known by what he loves, desires and seeks. Show me what a man lives for, and hopes in and I can tell you the measure of that man. A righteous man seeks Glory. By that we don’t mean personal fame or aggrandizement, but the honor that shall come from God alone. “Well done thou good and faithful servant…”.

In other words a truly Righteous man seeks the praise of God, not of man, He plays before an audience of one. Jesus said of himself ,

As a Man, Jesus didn’t seek the approval or glory of man, but always to glorify God. One of his indictments to the Jewish establishment was that faith was impossible to them, because they sought glory from each other, and not from God.

How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? (John 5:44)

A Righteous man seeks Honor , which means that the rewards he seeks are from God. He isn’t man-centered, his values are oriented towards God, and the day of God’s reward,He seeks God.

Finally what a truly Righteous man seeks , is Immortality. This goes further than the desire to live forever, the one who is “in the right with God” is continually seeking “incorruptibility”, He wants free of sin, it’s ravages, and effects, He craves the total deliverance from all ‘hurtful lusts, defiling sin, anything that wrongs God or his fellow man, he longs for purity in thought as ell as deeds.

Paul declares that it is these who will be rewarded by God with eternal life. This is the true description of the one devoted to God, this is the true piety, the true righteousness, nothing more nothing less. But who is really and consistently like this?

"Paul declares that it is these who will be rewarded by God with eternal life. This is the true description of the one devoted to God, this is the true piety, the true righteousness, nothing more nothing less. But who is really and consistently like this?"

The answer is given in Romans chapter three: no one is really and consistently like this but the Lord Jesus Christ. This is true because none of us can keep the entire Law, 100%, 100% of he time and that is exactly what the Law requires:

"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all." (James 2:10)

That is why we need HIS righteousness and not our own:

"What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, “There is NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; There is NONE who understands, There is NONE who seeks for God; ALL have turned aside, TOGETHER they have become USELESS; There is NONE WHO DOES GOOD, There is NOT EVEN ONE.” “Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”; “Their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction and misery are in their paths, And the path of peace they have not known.” “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are UNDER the Law, so that EVERY MOUTH may be closed and ALL THE WORLD MAY BECOME ACCOUNTABLE (i.e., Guilty before God) TO GOD;

because BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW NO FLESH (i.e., NO ONE) WILL BE JUSTIFIED IN HIS SIGHT; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

But now APART FROM THE LAW THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD HAS BEEN MANIFESTED, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST FOR ALL WHO BELIEVE (i.e., believe in Jesus Christ); for there is no distinction (i.e., no distinction between Jew and Gentile); for ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD, being JUSTIFIED AS A GIFT BY HIS GRACE THROUGH THE REDEMPTION WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation (i.e., a satisfying sacrifice)in HIS BLOOD THROUGH FAITH. This was to demonstrate HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;

for the demonstration, I say, of HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS at the present time, so that He would be JUST and THE JUSTIFIER OF THE ONE WHO HAS FAITH IN JESUS.

Where then is boasting? IT IS EXCLUDED. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a LAW OF FAITH. For we maintain that A MAN IS JUSTIFIED (i.e., declared righteous by God and treated as such) BY FAITH APART FROM THE WORKS OF THE LAW.

Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.

Do we then nullify the Law THROUGH FAITH? May it never be! On the contrary, WE ESTABLISH THE LAW." (Romans 3:9-31, Emphasis mine)

The righteousness that God requires is the same righteousness which the Apostle Paul speaks of in Philippians 3:7-9:

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain CHRIST, and may be found IN HIM, NOT HAVING A RIGHTEOUSNESS OF MY OWN DERIVED FROM THE LAW, BUT THAT (i.e., that righteousness) WHICH IS THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH COMES FROM GOD ON THE BASIS OF FAITH." (Emphasis mine)

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