As the end of the year approaches, there will be many lists that are generated as a summary of this past year. Best-selling book of the year. Celebrities who passed away during 2023. Billboard charts, most popular names for boys and girls, most profitable movies, etc. There are lists of the most popular slang words for the year. For example, in 2023, some of the most used slang words include “sus” which is short for suspicious, “bet” which is used to mean you agree with something or if something is considered good news, and “bussin” which means something is really good.[i]
The most popular slang word for 1986 was the word “righteous” meaning: something cool or amazing.
The ’80s seem to have spawned a dozen ways to call something cool. “Righteous” is yet another. Perhaps its most famous usage happens in a scene from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” in which a school secretary uses the slang of the day (including several words on this list) to describe all the people who think Ferris is a “righteous dude.”[ii]
We still hear the word “righteous” used in describing something or someone who is considered cool or awesome. And unfortunately, because we hear it used in an informal and laidback manner, the word “righteous” has lost a bit of its true meaning. It’s like the word “holy”. We say “holy cow”, “holy guacamole”, or “holy moly” and, as a result, the word “holy” loses a bit of its holiness.
So, what is righteousness?
The Cambridge definition of righteousness is “morally correct behaviour , or a feeling that you are behaving in a morally correct way.”[iii] To clarify that definition, Cambridge states “To act morally is to act in a way that you or people in general consider to be right, honest, or acceptable.”[iv]
The problem there is that we all have our own definitions of what is right, what is honest, and what is acceptable. Therefore, the standards or requirements of righteousness are going to vary based on our individual beliefs.
The Biblical definition of righteousness is a bit different. “Righteousness is an attribute that belongs to God, the Lawgiver, and is manifested in His laws. No man can be justified by his own works apart from God’s ordinance. Therefore, righteousness is a wonderful gift from God to humanity through His love: it is the God-given quality imputed to man upon believing in the Son of God.”[v]
To make it even simpler, “righteousness is the quality of being right in the eyes of God, including character (nature), conscience (attitude), conduct (action), and command (word).”v
The Hebrew word for “righteous” or “just” is “tsaddiyq”. The word is used many times in the Old Testament to describe God.
Ezra 9:15 NIV “Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.”
Daniel 9:14 NIV “The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.”
It seems that there are more than 3,200 people mentioned in the Bible.[vi] Out of those, very few people are described as righteous. The very first one named was Noah.
Genesis 6:9 NLT “This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.”
Why was Noah considered a righteous man? He certainly wasn’t perfect. However, Noah was the exception to everyone else. He had a good reputation; he was known for his integrity and morality. He would have been the poster child for Cambridge’s definition of righteousness in that he demonstrated morally correct behavior. But what really set him apart was that he walked with God. He had close fellowship with God. Because of that close relationship, Noah lived his life in obedience to God, and as a result of that, God viewed Noah as being righteous.
Noah, like Ferris Bueller, was a righteous dude, but unlike Ferris Bueller, Noah’s righteousness came from God Himself.
Hebrews 11:7 GNT “7 It was faith that made Noah hear God’s warnings about things in the future that he could not see. He obeyed God and built a boat in which he and his family were saved. As a result, the world was condemned, and Noah received from God the righteousness that comes by faith.”
We’ve done enough study in the Old Testament to understand that God’s chosen people, the Israelites, continuously let God down. They disappointed Him with their disloyalty, their fickle faith, and their disregard for fellowship with Him. Jeremiah, the prophet, is given a message from God to deliver and it’s not all very encouraging.
Jeremiah 23:1 EASY “The Lord says, ‘Terrible trouble will come to the rulers of my people. They should have taken care of my people, as shepherds take care of their sheep. Instead, they have caused them to run away.’ 2 So the Lord, Israel’s God, says to the leaders who rule over his people, ‘You have not taken care of my people. You have chased them away to other places. So now I will come and punish you, because of the evil things that you have done. I, the Lord, tell you that!”
God’s not happy. The rulers and kings have been misleading God’s people. They’ve not been directed to God as they should have been. And, as a result, punishment will be carried out. But God has some good news for His people.
“5 The Lord says, ‘The time will come when I do this:
I will cause a descendant of David to be born.
He will be righteous.
He will grow like a branch on the tree of David’s family.
He will rule as king in a wise way.
He will do what is right and fair in the land.
6 While he rules, the people of Judah will be safe.
And Israel’s people will live in peace.
People will give this name to him:
“The Lord is our righteous Saviour.” ’
A righteous descendant will be sent. He will be wise, do what is right, and be fair. His name will be “The Lord is our righteous Savior”. Of course, this was Jesus. Jesus was not only righteous, He was righteousness. He was and is our supplier of righteousness. Without Him, we don’t have access to being righteous. Without Him, we have no hope of being seen by God as righteous.
Noah was a righteous man, but he wasn’t perfect. He wasn’t without sin. Although he walked with God and lived a blameless life in a world of sinfulness and even though God saw something in him worth saving to start a whole new world, Noah still messed up. Although his past had been blameless and righteous, the same couldn’t be said about his time after the flood.
Isaiah 64:6 NIV “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
Why might we be tempted to think we are righteous on our own?
If we have set our own definition of righteousness, then certainly we are going to achieve that. If we have created a list of do’s and don’ts that are molded to our comfort and our behavior, then being righteous is easy, isn’t it? But there’s a big difference between being self-righteous and righteous by God.
Romans 3:10 NIV “10 As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
We may recognize that we’re not righteous by God’s standards, but let’s admit it. Sometimes we like to think we’re a teeny bit more righteous than someone else, right?
New Year’s is a time for reflection and resolutions. How many of our resolutions involve being more righteous in God’s eyes?
In our books on page 48, there’s an illustration, a very simple illustration, but one that causes us to really think. How do people try to connect with God?
Good deeds, appearances, how they talk, church attendance, raising hands, or being demonstrative in worship to be seen by others.
John 14:6 couldn’t make it any clearer that Jesus is our only avenue to God. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (ESV)
2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB “He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
The Contemporary English Version makes it even clearer to us. “Christ never sinned! But God treated him as a sinner, so Christ could make us acceptable to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 CEV)
Without Jesus, we don’t know what righteousness is, we can’t become righteous, and we certainly don’t understand the importance of righteousness. Ephesians 6 outlines the armor that we should clothe ourselves in every day. One of the largest pieces is the breastplate of what? Righteousness!
A physical breastplate is worn to cover the heart and the vital organs that work to keep the body healthy and alive. The spiritual breastplate of righteousness works very much the same way. “Because righteousness, or holiness, is such a distinctive characteristic of God himself, it is not hard to understand why that is the Christian’s chief protection against Satan and his schemes. As believers faithfully live in obedience to and communion with Jesus Christ, His own righteousness produces in them the practical, daily righteousness that becomes their spiritual breastplate. Lack of holiness, on the other hand, leaves them vulnerable to the great enemy of their souls.”[vii]
And this would be where self-righteousness opens the door to Satan. Because if we aren’t looking to Jesus for the source of our righteousness, we’re doing it all wrong. Proverbs 15:9 tells us that God loves those who pursue righteousness. For us to pursue righteousness, we have to admit and recognize our failure to please God on our own accord. We must see ourselves as fallen, sinful beings in desperate need of a spiritual makeover available only through Jesus Christ.
“It is misleading to say that God accepts us the way we are. Rather He accepts us despite the way we are. He receives us only in Christ and for Christ’s sake. Nor does He mean to leave us the way He found us, but to transform us into the likeness of His Son.”
Sinclair B. Ferguson
Often people will talk about their changed life since they met Jesus and that’s absolutely the truth. But the reality is that we shouldn’t be living just a changed life, but rather a changing life. We should be pursuing righteousness through Jesus constantly.
Earlier I gave a simple Biblical definition of righteousness. “Righteousness is the quality of being right in the eyes of God, including character (nature), conscience (attitude), conduct (action), and command (word).”v
Look back to Romans 3:19-18 that we read earlier that sadly informs us that no one is righteous. Look at verse 13 and 14. Tongues practicing deceit, poison on their lips, mouths full of cursing and bitterness. Those represent words.
Look at verse 15. Feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery. Those represent action.
Verse 17. The way of peace they do not know. This is the attitude.
And finally in verse 18 is the unrighteous nature. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
So if we are not righteous on our own and our only hope of righteousness is found in Jesus, how do we, as Christians, pursue righteousness?
Hebrews 12:2 GWT “We must focus on Jesus, the source and goal of our faith. He saw the joy ahead of him, so he endured death on the cross and ignored the disgrace it brought him. Then he received the highest position in heaven, the one next to the throne of God. 3 Think about Jesus, who endured opposition from sinners, so that you don’t become tired and give up.”
The more that we focus on Jesus and His sacrifice for us that wipes away our sinfulness, the more our faith in Him grows. As our faith in Him increases, we can see ourselves and our lives in Him and see the benefits that come from being more like Him in our character, nature, attitude, actions, and words. That is our responsibility to receive the gift of righteousness.
“ There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.” Blaise Pascal
[i] Most used slang terms for 2023 include Sus, Bet, ‘Yeet’. See full list (usatoday.com)
[ii] Popular Slang Words From the Year You Were Born | Stacker
[iii]RIGHTEOUSNESS | English meaning – Cambridge Dictionary
[iv] MORALLY | English meaning – Cambridge Dictionary
[v] What is Righteousness? Bible Meaning Explained (christianity.com)
[vi] Why people in the Bible are called characters – .BIBLE: for all things Bible online (get.bible)
[vii] What Is the Purpose of the Breastplate of Righteousness? (biblestudytools.com)
Beacons of Light 