The Righteousness of God's Name

Who has heard of the Righteous Brothers and know their music?  Want to know how they named their group?  They were playing when someone in the audience yelled "That's righteous brother!"  The name stuck.

The term righteous has been used as slang for very good, moving, awesome, cool and more and like other biblical words it has come to represent many things that are FAR from Godly.

So let's start by looking at the history of the word.  The word is derived from ancient words right  and wise and it indicated characterized by justice, morally right.

And the word right as expected illustrates similar concepts of "move in s straight line" and also "to rule, to lead straight, to put right." So let me ask you this question: do the majority of our federal politicians in THIS era lead this country in a right wise manner?  Are they characterized by justice and moral correctness?  Or do they lead this way and that leaving a path that looks like a sidewinder in the desert?

So, righteous character is to be true to a moral standard no matter what.  When one's "moral compass" leads in a chaotic manner, chaos, NOT order, results.  

Righteousness is a quality of God.  God has a standard of moral correctness.  He has illustrated it to humanity; God has codified it in his commandments; God has given us a living example of it in Jesus; God has shared his Holy Spirit with those who desire it to help guide us in living up to that standard.

We CAN know righteousness when we know and walk with Jesus.

We look at Jeremiah 23:5-6 and Romans 3:10b-13 and 21-26

Let's first look at what God told Jeremiah to tell us:

Jeremiah 23:5-6  The Righteous Branch of David

“Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration— “when I will raise up a Righteous Branch for David. He will reign wisely as king and administer justice and righteousness in the land. 

In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely.  This is the name he will be called: The Lord Is Our Righteousness.  

The Hebrew word used for "Lord is our Righteousness" is Yahweh-zidkenu.  Since humanity, left to its own devices, has no real moral standard that it applies consistently, God's messiah's chief characteristic will be Jehovah is our righteousness, meaning that the Messianic king will adopt and live by God's standards, teaching and guidance.

In Jeremiah's time God called out the leadership class of Judah, through Jeremiah, because of their "un straight", or "unrighteous", or "crooked" leadership.  Those who were to be shepherding God's people to the protection and well-being of God had instead scattered them through their inconsistent, if not secular, leadership.  

False prophets were preaching wealth, prosperity and deliverance for Judah.  Just as is done today, some "guru" from an "ivory tower" propounds HIS, HER, THEY'S, ZAY or ZEMS "truth" as if were factually true and upright, usually without having experienced the reality of their propositions. A couple of recent examples in our time include the Bud Light debacle "embrace abnormal behavior in order to gain more profit.  It will work!"   Nope, or the modern political left when told socialism has NEVER worked in a long term setting.  His, her, they's, zay or zem's response is usually something like, "but they did it all wrong.  Now MY way is 'socialism that works.'"  But when asked if IT has ever worked in a reality setting,  the reality tends to be that it is all just so much human guesswork.

Jeremiah, however, preached God's word about God's coming judgment and exile of Judah.  It would seem that the reign of David's family line over Judah would end with King Zedekiah when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 BC.  But God intended to raise up a Messiah who would truly bring his people hope.  A new king and shepherd from the line of David.  As such, David's family line would endure forever.  Jeremiah identified this messiah as the Righteous Branch for David, a branch of David's family tree.

As their king, the Messiah will illustrate for the people what "straight-line" living is.  He will guide wisely which will cause the people to prosper and gain insight into the ways of God.  He will administer true justice, i.e. firm, solid, steadfast, uprightness in all actions.

The messiah will be concerned with bringing such uprightness to the land.  Usually kings are just concerned with governmental finances, security and policy making for power, but the messiah will be concerned with just and upright character in all. 

Ironically, King Zedekiah was the last king of Judah before he was captured, watched his sons executed, and then had his eyes put out by the Babylonians.  YIKES!  Zedekiah's name means "Jehovah is righteousness", though he didn't choose to live like it.  The Messiah's name would be similar, but it would be "Jehovah is OUR righteousness"  Yahweh-zidkenu  

In the next verses we see that there is no righteousness without including God.

Romans 3:10b-13 

... as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. 11 There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.12 All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good,  not even one.

13 Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips.

In this passage we see the best description of halitosis, or bad breath, there has ever been.  Paul explains that no humans live without the consequences of sin – no non-Jew (gentile) and NO JEW (but the messiah).  The Jews believed that they had an advantage over everyone else in the world because "God chose them."  They were God's chosen people.  No other people could claim that title (until Jesus taught that it WAS open to ALL people).  

Paul points out that since all non-Jews AND Jews were human, NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM had an advantage over anyone else when it came to their relationship with God.  Formulaically you could express it as:

1) Humanity SINNED. 
2) Humanity lives under the penalty for Sin.
3) Jews are human.
4) Non-Jews are human.

5) ALL HUMANS require salvation from the penalty of Sin.

It is safe to say that not all humanity usually seeks after God.  Without God seeking humanity we would be without hope.  Humans are similar to the "wild animals" when they shy away from anything Godly. Just as a wild deer, racoon, fox, etc. shies away from humans and other larger animals.  Humanity has a total desire to ignore God and his ways.

Verse 13 describes their halitosis:  Their throat is an open grave.  More than just a nice clean, newly dug grave, think freshly dug up, unboxed, unembalmed cadavers.  It is a smell that you will NOT forget!  

Those living apart from Christ use their words and exclamations in a way that is as foul as a freshly opened grave.  This further describes when Jesus declared that because of their hypocrisy, the Pharisees were like beautiful, white-washed tomb filled with dead men's bones and every kind of impurity.  We could phrase it like "You are as beautiful as the most artfully crafted mausoleum, but when you open up you smell as foul as death dug up."

Those outside of Christ often use their speech to speak lies and engage in deception.  The tongue is an inflammation that is as deadly as a wildfire, or as of the venom of snakes.  So Paul is letting us know that the unsaved, basically, smell like death, are as inflammatory as fire, and as poisonous as snakes.  Quite a suitable illustration for one whose "father is the Devil".

In the next verses we see that God's righteousness HAS been fully revealed in Jesus.

Romans 3:21-26  The Righteousness of God through Faith

21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. 22 The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

Paul would now explain a new way of righteousness.  He noted that God gave the Law to educate us.  He notes that the words of the law and the actions of the prophets.  The Jewish religion had always put their faith in their "genetic relationship with God", and the hope that, in their own capacity, they could be able to keep the law.  Paul says that now it is faith in Jesus Christ, faith in God who reached out to humanity, that results in us attaining the righteousness of God.  

This is good news indeed.  But while the good news is available to all, it is not effective for all.  In other words, knowing ABOUT the Gospel is about as effective as looking at a book on the shelf in the library without ever having opened the book.  You CAN'T practice what you DON'T KNOW.  But for those who believe AND practice what they are learning, we grow ever more close to Jesus and God.  The believer is permanently placed in the position of right standing before God.  

In Christ one becomes all that God requires.  God does this as a free gift.  God paid the price to buy us back from the mess that we got ourselves into.

We can know righteousness when we know and walk with Jesus.