Hello All Saints’ Youth Group Reunion,

The weather up here in Northern Maryland has been strange so far today… It has been a mixture of bright overcast and gathered areas of deeper blue (read: water-filled) clouds. The birds don’t seem to mind. And the squirrel who pillaged the corn cob at the feeder in my backyard this morning was not perplexed either… thus if animals aren’t, then I shant be either! 😉

I thought for a few minutes on this next name of God and how to make it applicable to us. The name comes from a ‘Messianic” passage in the Old Testament. Whenever you see the word “Messianic”, just extract the word “Messiah”. And any Christian worth their salt (ha ha) should know to Whom this is referring, right?! Let’s read…

Jeremiah 23:5-6

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS…”

The Lord Our Righteousness = JEHOVAH TSIDKENU

So the word to really pull out is “Righteousness” and consequently “Righteous”. Merriam-Webster has a good definition of the word “Righteous”…

1: acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or sin

I also read online that the Hebrew root word “Tsidek” can mean “Straight”.

So putting the two together we can arrive at an understanding of the word “Righteous”; To be righteous is to be in accord with God’s law as set forth in His word… You are a straight-shooting (ha ha) obedient subject of your Master, the Lord. You are walking the Straight and Narrow… Being and doing such, you are righteous, living a life of righteousness.  

Now reading this you may recall a contradictory statement in the NT…

Romans 3:10

As it is written (In Ecclesiastes 7:20): “There is none righteous, no, not one…”

Uh oh. If Romans 3:10 indicts you and me and all of humanity of disobedience towards (crimes against) Holy and Almighty God… thus condemned to hell… how is it that people can be saved and escape eternal torment? How can unholy and unrighteous sinners be rescued and made into holy and righteous saints in the eyes of God??

Look at the first part of the name…. THE LORD.

The Lord can do it! Hallelujah! It goes back to that old line you’ve heard since you were a kid, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.’

Romans 4:5

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

So being truly converted to Christ through faith puts us in the same “family” as Old Man Abraham who believed (trusted by faith in) God too…

Genesis 15:6

And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

So an ungodly man is unable to be righteous on his own, but can be declared righteous (forgiven of our sins) by virtue of Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross…

Colossians 1:13-14

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Really then, believers knowing their past condition can joyfully give credit where credit is due: to JEHOVAH TSIDKENU! Amen! Believers in this day and age proclaim it and believers in the future will too.

1. Consider two kinds of righteousness: Self and Imputed
2. Who are good examples of showing one or the other?
3. What kind do you have?

Peace,
Jim