“I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto Thee, O Lord, I will sing.” Psalm 101:1
It was in the Sermon on the Mount, when comparing the pursuit of the necessities of life with spiritual objectives, that Jesus would command: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt. 6:33) Why does He speak of the kingdom of God as being first? It is because that in the realm and extent of Christ’s reign in the heart, that He is free to provide all things necessary, as they will be received with thanksgiving, giving glory to God. It is a small thing for Him to provide for His own. It is quite another for the individual seeker to seek and find that which is first and foremost in God’s sight.
In considering the “kingdom of God,” the Lord makes it clear that the essential element of that kingdom is His “rightness,” or righteousness. Simply put, it is all that which is right in the sight of God, to be received, incorporated into the life of the individual, and held as the standard for living and walking with God. We know from the writings of Isaiah that there is a vast, and eternal, difference between that which is right in the sight of God and that which has been coneived in the heart of sinful man. So great is the chasm between the two types of righteousness, and the revealed impossibillity of sinful man to rise to heights and essence of the “rightness” of God, that God in Christ alone can bridge this gap between the two. Only the revealed and declared righteousnessof Christ, given or attributed to sinful man, is acceptable to God. Only by receiving it alone by faith can the true believer in Christ know Him as his Savior. Christ has taken the sinner’s soiled, filthy clothes of his own righteousness, removed and destroyed them, and then clothed him with the pure, perfect, and holy righteousness of Christ. It is in seeing the unblemished covering of Christ’s righteousness, upon and in the believer, that the Father accepts the believer in His Son. How does Christ’s righteousness to be known and lived “…on earth as it is in heaven.?”
Throughout the written history of God in the Bible, we find that from the very beginning of man’s existence, God has spoken about His righteousness, the need to know, respect , and observe it. On this side of the Fall of man, men find themselves in a world where, by lack of this knowledge, there is no peace with God, and evidently little peace with men. David would write in his Psalms of God’s righteousness, a righteousness from heaven, given to men who would receive it. That righteousness would not only touch the fabric of every civilization which was exposed to the truth, but in every individual on earth who came to see and know something of Christ. The fruit of such a sincere search of God, and His righteousness, would result in knowning blessed fellowship with God, and His working. How is this righteousness to be known and lived?
First and foremost, we must understand that God’s righteousness has its source in one place, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul writes, “But of God are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God, is made unto us wisdom and RIGHTEOUSNESS…” (1 Cor. 1:30) All the righteousness of God is found in Christ, thus, He alone is our source and sufficiency. Secondly, If one would drink from this living stream of life, goodness, and righteousness, there must be the forsaking of all other means of seeking one’s “rightness,” by creating imperfect, and impossible standards of men’s devising. Thirdly, there must be the honest, individual coming to Christ alone, there to seek from Him His mercy, that blessed attribute of God which gives the helpless, hopeless sinner, access to the Fountain of Living Waters. What are Christ’s words to such a one who is thirsting? “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” (Is.55:1)
Dear Father, Give us Thy righteousness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.