He loves righteousness

For the Lord is righteous,

He loves righteousness;

His countenance beholds the upright – Psalm 11.7

Righteousness is not one of those popular common place words today. We don’t talk about righteousness a whole lot. He seems kind of old fashioned and passé. We have a lot more to deal with than righteousness.

The older word for righteousness was rightwiseness. At its simplest it is simply doing right. Theologically it is the state of being right with God and acting right with God.

God is righteous. God loves righteousness. God looks with favour on the upright.

God is righteous, no man is righteous. So how does all this work out?

At salvation the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. We become righteous with His righteousness. When we finally get to heaven our righteousness will be perfect and complete.

But in between we have the problem that even though Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us we still live in our flesh. That flesh makes living a righteous life just a little difficult.

So in between our imputed righteousness and our perfect righteousness we are called to strive to live in righteousness today. We have the power to live righteously because of what Christ did on the cross. Our challenge is to make those righteous choices from day to day to day.

We can’t do that on our own. We need His help to live righteous lives. But since He loves righteousness He will give us what we need to live righteous lives.