Righteousness...a Reclaimed Relationship

Righteousness sounds so dry. As exciting as it is to read in Easton’s Bible Dictionary that I am “entitled to all the advantages and rewards arising from perfect obedience to the law (Rom. 5:1-10),” it still sounds rather judicial. But it’s not. I believe righteousness is mostly about relationship.

Actually, at least by one sense of its definition, righteousness is relationship. To be righteous means to be "right" with God, or in perfect standing with Him…in other words, to have a perfect relationship with Him.

An incredible thought: to have the righteousness of Jesus means to have the same perfect relationship with God that Jesus has. Can anything compare to that relationship? Can there be any love more satisfying and sure than the love between God the Father and His Son, Jesus? Can there be any more intimate friendship, any more open communication, any greater acceptance, any more certain approval? This describes the believer’s relationship with God…Selah.

I believe this view of righteousness is a good look into the heart of God. He paid the price of the cross, not out of pity to rescue sinners, but out of love to gain children and friends. His desire wasn't to clean up someone's mess because He felt sorry for them; it was to reclaim the broken relationship with His most prized creation, the only one in His own image.

John said God is love. That means God is relationship, and often it seems that relationship is what His plan and His ways boil down to. Righteousness means we have the same judicial standing with God as Jesus; but more importantly, it means we have the same relationship.