Perfect Obedience

Romans 5:18-19

Paul’s comparisons of our unions with Adam and Christ show us how wrong we are in our tendency to think that some goodness in us motivated God to save us. We were lost, justly condemned. But God saved us ...Read More

Practicing Righteousness

1 John 3:9–10

The distinction John makes between children of God and children of the Devil denies any naive assertion that all people have God as their Father. Only those who are in Christ by faith and therefore submit to Him as Lord ...Read More

Repenting of Our Righteousness

Isaiah 64:6

Today’s passage reminds us that God does not grade on a curve. We may consider ourselves better than others on a human level when we evaluate ourselves by imperfect human standards of justice, but the Lord evaluates us by ...Read More

Righteousness and Life

John 3:36

When we believe in Jesus alone, we are immediately granted the gift of eternal life. There is nothing else we need to do in order to receive this life, and if we think that we must do good works in ...Read More

Righteousness and Mercy

Matthew 5:6–7

Our passion for righteousness and mercy is one way we can measure our fervor for the Lord. There are innumerable ways we can pursue both of these actions. Thus, we are unable to complain to God that there have been ...Read More

Rome’s Analytic View of Justification

Romans 1:16–17

Roman Catholics and Protestants differ on several fundamental matters, not the least of which is the doctrine of justification. It is essential that we do not blur the lines on this issue, for the very gospel is at stake. We ...Read More

Ruth’s Righteous Husband

Ruth 4

Boaz was ultimately rewarded for his selfless deed when he was included in the line of David and thus the line of Christ (Matt. 1:1–17). He did not know that this would be his reward when he cared ...Read More

Slow to Anger

James 1:19–20

All of us can recall times when we were too quick to speak and not quick enough to hear the whole story. Some of the most hurtful things that we have said or that have been said to us have ...Read More

Suffering for Righteousness

If you are suffering, reflect on these questions: Is it because of your own bad decisions? Is it because of your circumstances? Are you suffering for righteousness’ sake or is your suffering self-inflicted? Read More

The Dreamer

Genesis 37

The jealousy of Joseph’s brothers — exacerbated by Jacob’s favoritism — led to their selling him into slavery and subsequent lies that a wild animal had killed him. Though we cannot blame their sin on Jacob, the story does illustrate ...Read More

The Great Exchange

Romans 4:1–8

If we are in Christ, if we trust in Him alone, we have His righteousness credited to our account. When God looks at us, He sees the righteousness of Christ and no longer deems us guilty. This is the good ...Read More

The Imitation of Christ

Ephesians 5:1

The Apostle Paul’s teaching on our sanctification is ultimately a call to the imitation of Christ (1 Cor. 11:1). Therefore, we should pay close attention to the words and actions of Jesus if we want to understand what ...Read More

The Living God’s Righteous Hands

Hebrews 10:30–31

When talking to unbelievers, we can point out that Christianity alone believes in God’s justice and holy hatred of sin. As long as the adherents of other faiths maintain that our good works can make up for sin and ...Read More

The Righteousness of God

Matthew 6:25-34

Would it embarrass you to be known as a “righteous person”? We should think about ourselves biblically, and use biblical language as much as possible. We should not let the world scare us away from words like righteous. Instead, we ...Read More

The Righteousness of God by Faith

Philippians 3:7–9

Not all of us tried to earn our way to God by the Mosaic law before knowing Christ. Probably, most of us just sought to do the good we could, hoping it would outweigh our bad deeds. Regardless, we had ...Read More