Jesus’ Righteousness is an attribute made possible for us through faith in and grace from Jesus. In Evangelical circles this usually means that Jesus’ Righteousness is attributed to us positionally and that our own righteousness is as filthy rags. In other words, God sees Jesus’ Righteousness when He looks at us instead of our filthy rags because of our faith in Jesus. There is truth in this interpretation. But there are more riches to be found in these words.
In John 15, Jesus says that He is the True Vine and that we His followers are the branches. And that when we abide in Him we will bear good fruit (His Righteousness). In other words we are hollow conduits that God fills with His grace: His empowering presence, that flows through us so our branches bear good fruit to the glory of God. We bear good fruit; we don’t produce it.
The good fruit is God’s Righteousness!
There many things that can impede the flow of Jesus’ grace through us! Things such as pride, judging, jealousy, condemning, criticizing, lies, hating, impatience, enjoying serious sins, etc. The key to ridding oneself of these blockages of sin is to fully repent God’s way. All these sins can be aimed at our neighbors and ourselves. But even if we properly get rid of such sin strongholds against our neighbors and ourselves. We can still miss someone very important! Namely: God! So, how do we know whether we are judging God or not? We can easily point to our loyalty to Jesus as evidence that we are innocent. Is this enough evidence though? No! Fact is we can easily believe and say “no we aren’t judging God” and yet be mistaken. The Old Testament says about the Israelites that they refused to believe in the goodness of God by murmuring against Him. And that is what kept them in the desert for forty-years. When we criticize and blame God and are negative and resentful towards Him, then we are judging Him. When we are full of self-pity and the belief that things are unfair, then we are sinfully murmuring and judging against God.
God is absolutely Good and fully Righteous. There is none higher! When we feel things are unfair we need to process our feelings and talk with God, getting in touch with Him who died for us and let Him clean us up with His blood and our faith. We need to see with the Light of the world: Jesus who is the only way to the Father.
If we are in the habit of judging God, then we are blocking the grace that enables us to love everyone supernaturally. If we are judging God and at the same time believe He is our Righteousness. Then in reality we are blocking God’s true Righteousness from flowing through us and are left only with our filthy rags: Things such as pride, judging, jealousy, condemning, criticizing, lies, hating, impatience, enjoying serious sins, etc.
No matter how we wish we didn’t we will visit these sins on all our neighbors. We will hurt a lot of people while thinking God is our Righteousness, but being in error. God isn’t hard on us. He is patient and loving. Waiting for us to come to Him in healthy humility to be taught to properly repent from our sins so His Righteousness shines through us with God getting the glory!
For advice on how to properly repent from sin strongholds and renew the dirty attitudes of our minds, see my book available on Amazon called: “Dismantling the Tree of Knowledge of Good and evil Within So Love Can Thrive”. We don’t have to spend all our lives in the desert!