Can a man be righteous?

So many have wondered if a man can be righteous, so many have concluded and have said that no man can be righteous, and some people don’t even talk about it, including the righteous, for the fear of being rebuked. But what is righteousness?

If we go by the definition of the dictionary or in a lay man’s term, righteousness means doing right or being morally right/justifiable. A righteous man is one who does the right thing all the time. But can that be possible for one not to err at all? Rom. 3:23- For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. This makes it even more difficult to know if a man can be righteous, especially in our world of today. We are in the end times and one can hardly find a man that still stands for truth. I have defined righteous as an act of faith in Christ by which He justifies us. Gal. 3:24- “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith”.

Text: Rom. 10: 3-5,10 KJV

3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

5 For Moses describeth the righteousness, which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.

10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

There’re 2 types of righteousness according to verse 3 of our text:

1. The righteousness of God- “ignorant of God's righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God”

2. Self-righteousness – “their own righteousness”

Therefore, if we go by the meaning of self-righteous, then no man can be righteous, but if we go by the righteousness of God, then we must understand that a man can be righteous, when justified through faith in Christ. In other words, you are righteous only if Christ justifies you to be one because He is the end of the law, and because you must first believe in Him (vs 4,10).

The answer to our topic question is ‘yes’ a man can be righteous, even in our world of today. If we say yes, then we may ask how? The scripture tells us that we must believe, that is, there must be an act of faith. The scripture also says that faith without work is dead. Therefore, faith is not the only criteria that could justify us as being righteous. Let’s see other criteria of righteousness.

1. Believe/Faith – This is the first criteria needed to be justified. You must believe to be justified. When you believe in something, you trust and cherish that thing, and you channel all your thoughts and energy towards that thing because you hold that thing so dear. Some people believe so much in money, friendship, or power and feel they can’t do without these, and so, they chase these things with everything in them for the fear of losing or not having them. This is similar to believing in Christ, we believe in Him because we know He exist though we can’t see Him. Therefore, if we believe in Christ, we will love and trust Him. Knowing that He is our life and our all in all, we would chase Him and follow Him with all our strength, body, and soul. Doing this will lead us to the next criteria, the fear of God.

2. Reverence/Fear of God – believing in Christ will definitely create a reverence for Him in your heart. You will have deep respect for, honor, trust, and fear Him. People do this for material things because they think they can’t live without it. God is God and must be feared.

3. Relationship – faith in God and reverence for Him, leads us to wanting to know Him more. We will have that deep love for Him that we can’t get Him out of our mind, and so, we want to be with Him all the time, speak to Him, understand Him, love what He loves and hate what He hates, and sacrifice for Him. The same way we meet a friend and can’t wait to tell him/her everything about us, you must also want to always communicate with Christ through prayers, and in wanting to learn more about Him, you must study the scriptures personally. A stranger or a relative cannot learn your love one for you, you learn your loved one by yourself. Therefore, if you wait for your pastors/priests to study about God for you, then you don’t love Him much and won’t know Him personally. Your personal study of Him in His Word will help you understand what He loves, what he hates, and what we can do for Him. This would lead us to service, our next criteria.

4. Service – this is actually where the act of faith is done. It is in service that you carry out a particular act that may count for you as righteousness. The act may be big or small, it doesn’t matter, what matters is the act of faith that justifies you as righteous. But you may not know when that act will come to be if your service to Him is small. You must serve Him big and wide consistently to give room for Him to justify you. The level of your service depends on the amount of faith you have in Him. If your faith is whole, then your service will be big because then you’ll put in all your energy, mind and soul in serving Him. But if your faith is partial, i.e. believing in so many things, then your attention and service will be divided, making your service to God small. You may miss your act of faith with divided attention.

5. Test – you cannot graduate from any program without taking a test, you’ll never have a grade and so, will never graduate. So it is in the kingdom of God, your faith must be tested in order to be classified as one who has faith, your love and service will be tested before you’re certified. As Gold is tested by fire, so is your faith (1 Pet. 1:7, 1Cor. 3:13).

What can be counted as righteousness for you? Any act of faith that is justified by our Lord Jesus Christ may be counted as righteousness for you. See some examples from the bible:

· Abraham: (Heb. 11) counted as a righteous man for his faith. Though he was not completely a perfect man, as seen in Gen. 20 when he lied to Abimelech that Sarah was his sister instead of his wife, his act of faith justified him. If we look closely at the criteria listed above, we will find out that Abraham followed these steps to becoming a righteous man. First, he believed and trusted God, hence his obedience to follow his call, then he had the fear of God and has established a close relationship with God, he served God diligently, and was tested by God.

· Moses: despite he was raised in Pharaoh’s palace, he made that life changing choice to defend his people rather than the Egyptian. This led to his exile and to his meeting with God in the burning bush. All his service from then henceforth was in an act of faith in God. He had a good relationship with God and served God diligently to the point that he saw God face to face. Moses was tested severally, he was known for his humility. His patience was tried also yet continued to please God.

· Phinehas: the grandson of Aaron, appeased God by killing the Israelite man who refused to come to repentance with the people but went on carrying his midianite woman. That act of faith justified him (Ps. 106: 28-31, Num. 25).

· Lot: was justified for just an act of disgust for the abomination done in Sodom and Gomorrah (2Pet. 2:7-8). He obeyed because he believed.

· Abel: (Heb 11) his gift offering to God justified him. And his blood spoke. Thank God for the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that speaks louder than the blood of Abel (Heb.12:24).

Enoch, David, Noah, and a lot more.