“Rightness” Before God

The Doctrine of Righteousness

Righteousness refers to the perfect and unblemished “rightness” of all God is and does. God’s perfect righteousness means that He cannot tolerate sin. Jesus Christ is the only person who has lived a perfectly sinless life.1 Everyone else has sinned and continues to sin.2 When Jesus offered His followers Living Bread, He offered them Himself. Through Jesus’s achievement and not their own, those who believe in God’s Son receive eternal life.

Believers continue to sin like all other humans, but Jesus’s blood and righteousness cover their sins. People who believe in Jesus are justified—declared right with God and thus able to have eternal life in His kingdom. The indwelling Holy Spirit empowers believers to recognize and repent from sin. Through this ongoing process, called sanctification, the Holy Spirit imparts practical righteousness as God’s children grow to be more like Jesus.

People often fail to recognize the seriousness of their own lack of true righteousness. Comparing themselves to others and not God, they feel satisfied if they deem themselves better than someone else. No one realizes their need of Jesus as Savior without first acknowledging their inability to live up to God’s righteous standards. This serious matter should not be deflected or ignored.

In love and grace, God sent His own Son to rescue us from our desperate state. Jesus paid sin’s penalty on behalf of all who put their faith in Him.3 The Holy Spirit awakens dead hearts to recognize their debt of sin and turn to Jesus for salvation.4 Through Jesus, believers gain right standing with God, not because of what they offer, but based on Jesus’s perfect righteousness. In Jesus, God provided the righteousness He requires that we could not offer. For eternity, God’s people will praise His Son for His indescribable gift.5

1. Jesus’s sinlessness: 1 Peter 1:18-19, 2:22; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 1 John 3:5
2. Everyone sins: Romans 3:10; 1 John 1:8
3. Jesus’s sacrifice: John 3:16; Romans 5:8
4. Holy Spirit’s conviction: John 16:7-8
5. God’s indescribable gift: 2 Corinthians 9:15

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 10, The Gospel of John