“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD,
my soul shall be joyful in my God;
for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.”
(Isa 61:10a, NKJV)
In the last teaching we learnt that someone who operates in his own righteousness has loosened himself from God’s righteousness. Isa 53:6 makes it clear that no one has any righteousness within himself, as we have all strayed from God’s righteousness – “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” God chose Christ as his perfect, enduring righteousness (Dan 9:24) and prepared Him as covenant for His people (Isa 42:6).
In Jer 23:6 it is prophesied that Christ will be known as THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. For this reason we can only find righteousness in Christ – “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us … righteousness” (1 Cor 1:30; 2 Cor 5:21; Isa 45:24). In Rom 30:29 it is explicitly stated that this is the case, and that no one therefore has any grounds for boasting.
This righteousness is only activated through faith, not through works (Rom 4:6). “For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.””(Rom 4:3). Earlier in Rom 1:17 Paul states it as follows: “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.””
As the Scripture from Isaiah quoted above poetically maps out – God, through Christ, clothes you as believer with the robe of His righteousness. Solely on account of this do you and I who believe have right standing before God (Rom 5:12, 19, Ampl). When He looks at us, he does so through Christ’s righteousness (Phil 3:9).
But if the Word in Matt 6:33 states that we should “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness …” what should we seek, if we have already received it in Christ?
It is clear that this passage refers to the righteousness which is the foundation of the kingdom of God. Seek therefore the righteousness of the kingdom of God! Rom 14:17b explains that the kingdom of God is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”. Righteousness is thus one of the foundations of God’s kingdom, and this is not the righteousness we have in Christ, but the believer’s righteousness (as joy and peace are both fruits of the believer – Phil 1:11). In this way the believer must actively seek righteousness, or as Deut 16:20 strongly suggests – “You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”
- Sela: Pray Ps 5:8, Ps 119:40, Ps 31:1 and Ps 36:10.
- Read: 2 Kings 22; Jer 23; 2 Cor 6
- Memorise: 2 Cor 6:14-15
- For a deeper understanding: Read chapter 4 of Norman Grubbs’ The deep things of God.
