How Righteous Are You?

Stop right now and think about your day. How righteous are you today? What about yesterday? Did you have a better day yesterday, or today? Is your righteousness higher today or yesterday?

It’s a trick question, designed to make you stop and think. Your righteousness is exactly the same today as it was yesterday. That’s right, it didn’t change at all. You are as righteous today (despite the spilled coffee on your jeans, the frustration on the interstate, and your morning grumpiness) as you were yesterday (when you made an extra cup of coffee for your spouse and helped your kid with homework). But just how righteous is that?

It depends on whether you are in Christ. If you are ‘in Christ’ – a disciple of Jesus Christ who has repented of your sins and believed on Jesus – then your righteousness is equivalent with Christ’s righteousness. Actually, and more accurately, your righteousness is Christ’s righteousness. Christ’s wonderful character – the same character that healed poor people and washed the feet of God’s people – is what God sees when He looks at you, so to speak. Because you are united with Christ, you are so closely connected to Him that God doesn’t distinguish between you and Jesus. When God thinks about you (so to speak), He thinks about Jesus. So, your righteousness doesn’t change. It is always constant, because Jesus’ righteousness is always constant. (You can see this Biblical doctrine in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21).

On the other hand, if you are not ‘in Christ,’ you are fundamentally unrighteous. It really doesn’t matter whether you’ve had a good day or a bad day. The actions that you take are still displeasing to God, because they are performed apart from Jesus. You are trying to impress God – and the God who created the Milky Way Galaxy with a word isn’t easily impressed. The Bible teaches that there are two groups of people in the world: the ‘righteous’ who have been reconciled to God through Christ, and the ‘unrighteous,’ who are sometimes called ‘wicked.’ God’s pronouncement about them is that even their ‘sacrifice’ (their religious worship) is an ‘abomination’ in His sight (Proverbs 15:8) because they come from a heart that isn’t right toward Him.

So, if you are a Christian, why do you still feel more righteous on some days, and less righteous on other days? Why do you have good days and bad days? And, does it even matter if you have bad days, if you have Christ’s righteousness?

The answer is that you may be confusing righteousness and fruitfulness. If you are a Christian, you have Christ’s righteousness. This is constant. What changes is your fruitfulness. Some days you are very fruitful: meditating on the Bible, serving others, enjoying your prayer time. Other days you aren’t very fruitful (like when you snooze the alarm twelve times and then run out of time to read the Bible). Your fruitfulness isn’t the same as your righteousness, but it is important. If you are a Christian, you want to be fruitful because it demonstrates your thankfulness to God. You want to please Him and honor Him because of what He has done for you. Your fruitfulness is important, because it shows that you are abiding in Jesus. Ultimately, if you don’t bear fruit, that may be an indication that you actually aren’t in Jesus. So, yes, fruitfulness is important, very important. Just don’t confuse it with righteousness.

Your fruitfulness may change, but your righteousness won’t. This is wonderful news for the believer.