MY RIGHTEOUSNESS

The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness. Psalm 18:20

How much righteous do I have? I know I need a lot in order to get to heaven, and the Bible tells me that I am rewarded according to how much I have. That puts me in a real predicament because the Bible also tells me that my righteousness is as filthy rags. Which one is it? It seems that I cannot do both! What is a person to do?

So, I begin working on my righteousness because it makes sense to begin working there if it is so bad that God called it “filthy rags.” There is only one problem. It seems the more I work at perfecting it, the worse it gets. I am not getting anywhere — well, not forward anyway.

And you know what, as I walk through life, I see that I am not the only one with this problem. There are a lot of good Christians out there who are just as confused. They are gritting their teeth, hunkering down, and determining that this time they are going to obey God. This time they will be kinder, give more of themselves, or study with greater enthusiasm. But it does not work. It will never work. No matter how hard we all try, our righteousness is still as filthy rags.

However, when we read the Bible in that deeper way that we are supposed to, we see something beautiful. It is with breath-releasing relief that we discover that our righteousness actually comes from God. It is His robe of righteousness that we put on over our filthy rags, not ours! So when David says in Psalm 18:20 that we are rewarded according to our righteousness, what he is really saying is that we are rewarded according to the righteousness that we chose. Did we choose our own righteousness, or God’s? When we choose God’s righteousness, He promises to give it to us, and then it becomes ours. What a gift!

And now, when I read that I am going to be rewarded according to my righteousness, I get excited, because I have a lot that has been given to me!

By: Shari Bellchambers

MPA Faculty