Psalm 145:17 - The Lord is righteous in all His ways and faithful in all He does.
I. Recognize God’s Righteous Character Has Been Revealed
A. Through His word
Psalm 11:7 - For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; the upright will behold His face.
Deuteronomy 32:4 - The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.
B. Through the law
Deuteronomy 4:5-8 - See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on Him? Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?
Romans 7:12 - So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
C. Through His judgments
Daniel 9:14 - Therefore the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice.
Psalm 9:7-8 - But the Lord abides forever; He has established His throne for judgment, and He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity.
D. Through His promises
Nehemiah 9:7-8 - You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before You, and made a covenant with him to give him the land of the Canaanite, of the Hittite and the Amorite, of the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite–to give it to his descendants. And You have fulfilled Your promise, for You are righteous.
E. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ
Romans 3:21-23 - But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets…
II. Exalt God’s Righteous Work of Judgment and Rescue
Romans 3:22-25 - …even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed…
A. God righteously judges all people without distinction
Romans 3:23 - …for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…
Romans 3:9-10 - What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one…”
B. God righteously judged His Son in our place
Romans 3:25 - …whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed…
Isaiah 53:4-6 - Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21 - God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
C. God righteously provides rescue from judgement
Isaiah 45:19-25 - I have not spoken in secret, in some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, “Seek Me in a waste place”; I, the Lord, speak righteousness, declaring things that are upright. Gather yourselves and come; draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; they have no knowledge, who carry about their wooden idol and pray to a god who cannot save. Declare and set forth your case; indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. They will say of Me, “Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.” Men will come to Him, and all who were angry at Him will be put to shame. In the Lord all the offspring of Israel will be justified and will glory.
III. Embrace God’s Righteous Way of Declaring His People Righteous
Romans 3:26 - …for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
A. God’s people are declared righteous through faith
Romans 3:22 - …even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction…
Romans 3:24 - …being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus…
Romans 1:16-17 - For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”
B. Positional righteousness is to be revealed in practical righteousness
Romans 6:11-14 - Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
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