Prophets and God’s Righteousness Is 59:1-10; Matt 3:1-15; Acts 17:24-31
Video: https://www.stmarksbassendean.church/post/prophets-and-the-righteousness-of-god
Introduction
The righteousness of God is one of the most dominant themes in the Bible. Whilst in the Old Testament in particular, righteousness and justice largely overlap, e.g. “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.” (Ps 89:14; 97:2), the vocabulary of righteousness has largely dropped out of mainstream Western Christianity. Analysis of the human problem has shifted from repentance of wickedness to healing suffering with a message of “recovery” rather than salvation from God’s wrath. Victimhood has displaced rebellion as a primary way of interpreting human ills. Christians should know better than that, for as Jesus was never a victim, so neither are we. Whilst the mass of believers remain “unskilled in the word of righteousness” (Heb 5:13) a predominantly therapeutic Church will remain powerless to influence popular culture.
The Righteousness of God
It is a mistake to think about the righteousness of God in a psychological way, or in terms of a moral disposition. The character of the God of the Bible is known from his great acts, in creation, the exodus from Egypt, conquest of the Promised Land, exile and return, the Incarnation, cross and resurrection of Jesus, Pentecost and Christ’s Second Coming. The righteousness of God is an historical activity, “The LORD…is righteous; he does no injustice; every morning he shows forth his justice; each dawn he does not fail…” (Zeph 3:5). God’s affections/emotions cannot be separated from his saving actions. When God when God remembers Noah he blows away the flood waters (Gen 8:1 cf. Gen 40:15; Luke 1:54). “a man (who) is righteous…does what is just and right” (Ezek 18:5 cf. Prov 21:26; Eccl 7:20). As we will see later, Jesus is the act of God who exhaustively reveals what God’s righteous character.
Original Righteousness Despised
As created Adam enacted his dominion over the world “uprightly” (Gen 1:16-28; 2:15 cf. Eccl 7:29). He acted as an obedient son (Luke 3:38 cf. Matt 21:28-32) at the centre of a cosmic theatre in which, as the psalms say, the righteousness of God was being declared by the skies and the faithfulness of the Lord springing up from the ground (Pss 50:6; 85:11; 97:6). The just ways of the Lord were beaming constantly through the creation (Deut 32:4; Ps 111:7) and were one with the Word spoken about the tree of knowledge (Gen 2:17). This amazing testimony should have been more than adequate to resist the satanic temptation to imagine God’s intentions (cf. Jer 32:35) about “good and evil”” (Gen 3:4-5). As such the wilfulness of sin in Eden (1 Tim 2:14) had catastrophic consequences.
Adam and Eve turned their God-given moral and spiritual power into “suppressing the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom 1:18). Since God always governs righteously with the goal of destroying injustice every evil human intention is exposed to divine wrath (cf. Gen 6:5-7). Fallen people are always pushing against the righteous presence of God taking creation to its appointed goal in Christ (Heb 1:3). This explains why human life is plagued with boredom, weariness, dissatisfaction, depression, anxieties etc. The wait list for psychological services has exploded during the COVID 19 period (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-03/psychologists-report-huge-demand-surge-amid-coronavirus-pandemic/12622836) because with their normal distractions and cover ups taken away people are feeling the loss of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).
The tension between the righteousness of God and the unrighteousness of humanity exists at every level of human existence. Soon after 9/11 the Lord draw my attention to Isaiah 26:9, “My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.” Just as the prophets proclaimed Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon as God’s judgment on Israel and I recall Geoff Bingham, who suffered as a Japanese P.O.W., saying Hitler was God’s judgement on the United Kingdom. As the moral disciplines of God are learned through the painful issues of our own lives this is how they should be learned by nations. However, we a part of a nation that has forgotten God (Job 8:13; Ps 9:17; 50:22; Isa 51:13) and will never relearn his righteousness until there is a revival of God’s ways amongst his people. This is central to the prophetic message of scripture.
Old Testament
Overwhelmed by the great saving act of God which constituted their identity (Ps 103:6-7) the faithful in Israel extolled the Lord in the strongest possible terms, “Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep.” (Ps 36:6). Conscious of the righteous superiority of their law over that of other nations (Deut 4:8; Isa 42:21) they knew that the Judge of the earth would do what is right (Gen 18:25). Though the writings of the prophets are permeated with denunciations of Israel’s wickedness (Isa 9:18; 47:10; 58:2, 9; 59:1-15; Jer 14:20; 22:13; Ezek 5:6; Hos 9:15 etc.) they proclaim a day of divine victory when, “Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness. 28 But rebels and sinners shall be broken together…” (Isa 1:27-28). The Lord “will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.” (Ps 96:11-13). The topic of justice draws forth from the prophets some of the most inspiring language in the Bible, “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24). Isaiah prophesies a glorious national revival of righteousness in Israel when “you share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh” (58:7-8).
As our Old Testament reading declared (Isa 59:1-20) the Lord himself would takes up arms and make war in righteousness (Isa 59:15-20 cf. Rom 11:26-27) to establish justice permanently on the earth. With time, the expectations for this sort of a radical transformation became concentrated in a coming all-righteous king. “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.” (Isa 9:7 cf. Isa 11:4; Ps 72). This Servant of the Lord is called in righteousness (Isa 42:6), this “righteous Branch” of David will execute God’s reign (Jer 23:5; 33:15 cf. Isa 32:1) to perfection. Only Jesus would do right by God and his image to the full.
Jesus As the Righteousness of God Revealed
Jesus said John the Baptist came in “the way of righteousness” (Matt 21:32 cf. Ps 1:6; 5:8; Prov 2:20; 11:5; Isa 26:7; 45:13) because John’s preaching of repentance opened up a straight way for sinners to turn back to the Lord. When the Baptist initially refused to baptise him, the Lord replied with, ““Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”” (Matt 3:15). As Messiah called to fulfil all God’s old covenant promises Jesus would enact a measure of justice that would transform the whole cosmos into a place in which God himself could dwell with his people forever (Isa 66:22; 2 Pet 3:13). Christ’s own righteousness was a straight “way” extending from the cradle to the cross (Luke 1:76; 3:4; 7:27; 9:51; 13:33; 17:11; 19:4; 20:21).
Isaiah had prophesied of the Servant of the Lord, “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.” (Isa 53:11). The psalmist spoke of a coming King with, “a sceptre of uprightness” who would “love righteousness and hated wickedness” (Ps 45:6-7; Heb 1:8-9); but only in Jesus do we see a hatred of wickedness so total as to take the world’s unrighteousness upon himself (1 Pet 3:18).
In healing the sick, feeding the hungry, casting out demons and raising the dead Jesus revealed the Father’s righteous kingdom. Matthew tells us, “he cast out the (evil) spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. 17…to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.” (8:16-17 cf. Isa 53:4; Acts 10:38). Christ’s substitutionary identification with the lost began at his Incarnation, was publicly manifest at his baptism, empathetically broke out in his healings and reached perfection in the cross.
I find the most powerful witness to the revealed justice of God in Christ’s death to be this testimony, “The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, ‘Surely this was a righteous man.’” (Luke 23:47). When Paul wants to expand on the depths of our salvation he does so in the language of righteousness, we are, “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness…so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Rom 3:24-26). The supreme transforming power of the righteousness of God is that “he who knew no sin became sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). But the language of God’s righteousness is equally tied to Jesus’ resurrection.
The definition of the righteous God becomes, “the one who raises Jesus from the dead” (Rom 4:24; 8:11; 10:9; 1 Cor 6:14; 15:15; 2 Cor 4:14; Gal 1:1; 1 Thess 1:10). For Jesus personally, and so for us, resurrection is the final revelation of the righteousness of the Father (1 Tim 3:16 cf. Rom 1:4; 4:25). The apostles in their preaching didn’t try to prove to the pagans that God is Just by appealing to the beauty of sunsets or the joy of family life, even if they didn’t deny such things (Acts 14:17; 17:27), nor did they dwell on the wonderful love of God, they focussed on the almighty righteousness of God in his doing the right thing by his Son in raising him from the dead. “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31).
Faith and Righteousness
The revelation of the righteousness of God in the gospel gives faith its life. When God reveals his righteousness (Isa 56:1; Ps 98:2) in the gospel faith is created in the hearers (Rom 10:17) in the same measure as he brought the universe into being from nothing and gave immortal life to the dead body of Jesus (Rom 4:5 with 4:17, 24ff). Sharing in the righteousness of God in Christ (1 Cor 1:30) is the most vital thing that will happen to you this side of your resurrection from the dead. At the climax of a long list of God’s judgments on the earth, the glorified saints in heaven sing, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! 4 Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” (Rev 15:3-4 cf. Ps 98:2). This apocalyptic end of the world language in Revelation is matched by the language Paul uses of the gospel, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” (Rom 1:16-17). The just acts of God in bringing this wicked world to a close are one with the enormity of what is proclaimed in his acting in the death and resurrection of Christ and which we believe.
Righteous Church
As God’s eternal power and nature are clearly seen through his works in nature (Rom 1:19-20), so his righteousness in Christ is made visible through the righteous works of his Church shining (Matt 5:16) with the justice of the Father. this has nothing to do with trying to do the right thing by God in a law-bound way (cf. Rom 10:3-4). Revelation speaks of “the righteous deeds of the saints” who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (19:8; 7:14). With their unrighteous deeds judged and forgiven, as justified people the just acts of Christians become the visibility of eternal life now (cf. Eph 3:10). No longer having to substitute the covering of fig leaves for the radiant glory of God (Gen 3:7; Rom 3:23) Believers adorned with the righteousness of Christ (Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27) boldly do God’s works in the world in ways visible to the consciences even of the unsaved. Let me use a recent example to highlight.
I received an email the other day from a young Australian doctor and his wife ministering in South Sudan. They recently travelled into their local town and noticed a child motionless in a puddle on the street. They later found he had been lying there for two days. They picked him up, nurtured and fed him and have become his legal guardians. He had previously been abandoned by his family because he can’t walk or talk and is completely incontinent. His name is Emmanuel. Which means…“God with us” (Matt 1:21; 28:20). Is this name metaphorical, or something much more profound?
Remember the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matt 25:31-46) when Jesus said to “the righteous” who fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, clothed the naked and visited prisoners, “as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (25:37). A line from the end of Keith Green’s song on this parable is unforgettable. The only difference between “the righteous” who inherited eternal life and the goats who went to eternal punishment is what they did or did not DO. I would add one thing, the righteous did what they did they did in union with “the Righteous One” Jesus Christ (Acts 3:14; 7:52).
Not understanding righteousness by faith alone the contemporary Church is gripped by numerous deceptions. Many believers are seeking personal satisfaction, but, ““Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matt 5:6); others seek prosperity, but “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matt 6:33), others long for peace and joy, but “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…. the kingdom of God is…righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:1). Such exalted inner states are the fruit of a righteous life.
Conclusion
For the prophets and apostles of scripture the cause of the revelation of the righteousness of God is the most important cause in the world. Is that how we see the purpose of life? God reveals his righteousness through the preaching of the gospel (cf. Pss 22:31; 35:28; 71:15 etc.), through our carrying the wickedness of men and women on our hearts in intercession (cf. Ezek 22:30), through sacrificial service and our willingly enduring persecution (2 Tim 3:12). The Salvation Army had a motto that sums it all up, Soup, Soap and Salvation. Too simplistic for our sophisticated age, or is a righteous life just too difficult? Of course it’s too difficult. Let us turn to Christ.