“Mercy and truth are met together and; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. “Psalm 85:10

I used this scripture in a recent post about the mercy of God and I will probably use bits of it for the next several posts.

Just wanted you know that I’m not trippin’ 🙂

So let’s think about righteousness and what it really means, true righteousness simply means “right standing with God”, it covers integrity, honor, decency, and virtue among others. 

Self-righteousness has always been a huge problem, it goes right along with the “holier than thou” attitudes that we have all seen .

None of us can even achieve true righteousness on our own, nothing we can ever do or say that we make us “right”.

Which is great because it takes a lot of pressure off us, we would all be done for if we had to produce righteousness in our selves.

I am sure they will always be people that try to make you feel like they have cornered the market on “righteousness”.

They seem assured that they know more than everyone else, and ALWAYS have the “perfect” answer while all others are just “wrong” or that they have some sort of superhuman quality that makes them always say and do the “right” thing.

And they never do wrong or fall short… and there is obviously something wrong with you if you can’t seem to achieve their  level of perfection.

Yes, and that is quite a fairy tale that they tell!

And the Pharisee were well versed in that tale.

These thoughts and attitudes is what often puts so much undue pressure on believers and especially new ones, that they end up out of church because they feel they can’t “measure up” to those standards.

The GOOD NEWS is that those are NOT God’s standards!

Those are man-made doctrines and once you accept Christ the only standards you have to worry about are HIS and they are very clearly spelled out in His word and in the commandments.

It has never been about “measuring up” it is all about “bowing down” at the feet of Jesus and surrendering everything to Him.

Doing exactly as He commanded us, “Casting ALL your cares on him, for he careth for you.” and that truly means ALL. He knows our hearts, our thoughts,

He knows the things that make us stumble and Psalm 103:13,14  assures us of this: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth (has loving compassion on) them that fear him. For he knoweth (understands) our frame; he REMEMBERETH that we are dust.”

Ecclesiastes 7: 20:”For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” 

 Romans 3:10: “As it is written, THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUSNESS, NO, NOT ONE;.” 

Isaiah 64:6: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and ALL our righteousness are as filthy rags; and all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities , like the wind, have taken us away.”

Doesn’t sound very hopeful does it? 

But that is where the TRUTH comes in, that is the place that righteousness “kisses” truth out of happiness, joy, and gratitude.

We can’t have righteous apart from the truth.

And here is that truth.

Matthew 6:33: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness…”

Romans 4:18: “Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification by faith.  

That one was and is Jesus Christ.

1 John 2:1-3: ” My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not (may not sin), And if any man sin,we have an advocate (intercessor) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And he is the propitiation (atonement) for our sins; and not for our’s only, but for the sins of the whole world.

And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

Philippians 3:9: “And be found in him, NOT having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, But that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which IS of God by faith.”

Psalm 23:3: “He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

It is that truth and the faith in and of that truth that produces Godly righteousness. Romans 1:17: ” For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written,THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”

We have to have that faith, just as we are told to “Work out our own salvation with fear and trembling” another verse I have used countless times and it is one of my favorites because it really states truly how simple and easy the true Gospel is to receive.

God asks only a reasonable service and no two people agree exactly on all aspects of the Gospel and that is why we are told to pray and seek with reverential fear and seriousness what the Gospel is saying to us.

Just as what would make one stumble would be no problem for another and it take the Spirit to convict, guide, and lead us into those paths of HIS righteousness.

1 John 3:18-21: “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure (persuade) our hearts before him. 

For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us NOT, then we have confidence toward God.

Then we KNOW that we are of Him and we have  that confident faith that those mercies are new every single day and have faith that it is HIS righteousness that covers us when we abide in Him.

Isaiah 54:17″…” This IS the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of (from) me, saith the Lord.”

So don’t let anyone get you all strung up on what you have to do and how to do it, pray and trust God and let him lead you and this is one last wonderful promise and this is the destination point that those paths of righteousness lead.

Isaiah 32:15-17:” ” UNTIL the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be  counted for a forest.

Then judgment (justice) shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness REMAIN in the fruitful field. 

And the WORK(accomplishment) of RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL BE PEACE, and THE EFFECT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS QUIETNESS AND ASSURANCE FOR EVER.”

Thanks for reading! Love & Peace to you till next time!

Φλογιζω NBJ 2019