Righteousness is defined as being morally upstanding, virtuous, and ethical, and many people believe they can achieve that status on their own. They may have the best of intentions, but those who try to be righteous through self-effort won’t succeed in the long run. Most of us have done things in our past we don’t like to admit. We may never consider ourselves righteous if we take past behavior into consideration, but righteousness in God’s eyes is by faith, not works.
The realization that we’re made righteous by what Jesus did, not by what we do, frees us from the requirements of constantly laboring to be found acceptable. It has nothing to do with how often we come to church, how long we’ve sung in the choir, or how many times we volunteer at the local soup kitchen. It has everything to do with trusting in the power of the blood Jesus shed for us. “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” (Romans 3:22-25). We’re righteous because God said so, not because of our actions.
This is a completely different focus from the Old Testament, which was all about self-righteousness and the works of the law. Now that we’re under grace, we must be careful not to get entangled in religious doctrines that tell us we have to earn God’s blessing. The concept of receiving salvation by faith is something with which the world and many Christians struggle, but a sign of spiritual maturity is a greater understanding of this. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe” (Hebrews 5:12, 13, NKJV).
Our righteousness can be compared to the Old Testament account of Abraham sending away Hagar and Ishmael the day that Isaac was weaned (Genesis 21:8-14). Hagar and Ishmael represented the law and self-effort, Sarah represented the covenant of grace, Abraham represented faith, and Isaac represented the new creation we become when we are born again (Galatians 4:22-31). Living by faith weans us from depending on our performance.
The enemy will constantly attack our righteousness, but there’s no changing what Jesus did on the cross two thousand years ago. He actually exchanged his righteousness for our sinfulness. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). We become this the moment we believe in what Christ did, with no work required of us.
If we depended on what we do to get into heaven, we could ask ourselves how many righteous deeds are required, and where do we draw the line? A corresponding question could be, how much sin does it take to be a sinner? We can be thankful and grateful that our salvation is through Jesus and his perfect and completed works, not through our own imperfect efforts.