God is Righteous

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does.
(Psalm 145:17)

God is Righteous – What does righteous(ness) mean. I thought it meant the state of being right. But on doing some research, I found this is much too simple an interpretation. Righteous has two different but closely related meanings, depending on whether it is applied to man or to God. Let’s start with very brief look at what it means when applied to man. Dictionary.com defines it as:-

1. Characterized by uprightness or morality:
   a righteous observance of the law.
2. Morally right or justifiable:
   righteous indignation.
3. Acting in an upright, moral way; virtuous:
   a righteous and godly person.

But when applied to God, my Harper Collins Bible Dictionary says:-

1. Being Right [always]
2. Just, Justification
3. Conforming to a “norm”, the law, or what is right.
4. Loyalty to covenant promises.
5. Upright conduct.

Being Right [Always]

This is NOT the “I’m Right your wrong so there”. This is a loving God who never makes a mistake, and has a perfect plan, not only for the whole of creation, but for the church, and for each single one of us. It is a plan that knits together in perfection. What a fantastic comfort this is, I know, when I am prepared to listen, that when God speaks to me his advice is always right and always perfect. So I have to ask myself, why do I often go my own way! Surely after so many years of faith, I would have learnt to listen and follow! But God is so gracious, He is the rock, that is always there to pick me up, dust me off a set me on my way again, and again and again. “because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’'” (Hebrews 13:5). But Because God is so wonderful I don’t want to go my own way, but I do, what a wretched man am I, who will rescue me (Romans 7:21-25).

Just, Justification

God is a just god, this means that he is fair and impartial but it also means that he will always judge between right and wrong and he will administer justice according to his standards. “For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.’” (Acts 17:31). On that day, those of us that believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus, who being the Son of God, redeeming us of our sins. We will be adjudged innocent and rewarded with eternal life with Jesus at the right hand of God, but for those who do not believe this, they will be adjudged guilty and eternally separated from God, and “they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulphur” (Revelation 21:8).

To clarify that a bit. Because God is a just God, there must be punishment for our sins. But God is gracious and loving, and knows the punishment for sin is death (Proverbs 10:16, Romans 5:12). So God sent his own Son to be the sacrifice, we could not and cannot take, for our sin. Justice has been done, and no cost to us, except to believe this.

Conforming to a “norm”, the law, or what is right

I am going to be fairly vague on this, as I am not sure how this applies to God, as God is the “norm”, God defined “The Law” and we have just said the God is always right. And we try to conform to all of this as we are in the Image of God. To repeat myself I not sure if or how this applies to God.

Loyalty to covenant promises

There is no where in the Bible or in history where God has broken a covenant promise. The covenant with Abraham, that his descendants would be more numerous than the stars (Genesis 15 – 17). This is still being fulfilled today. The covenant with Moses and the descendants of Jacob that if they obeyed him fully and kept his covenant, they would be His treasured possession (Exodus 19:5-6) which lead to the giving of the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20). Even today we are failing to keep this covenant. Thus the need of the third covenant, the “New Covenant” the free gift of redemption and eternal life through the sacrificial death of Jesus, and His redeeming resurrection (The whole of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but most famously John 3:16).

There are many more covenants, such the covenant with Noah, Joshua and so on, but God has never broken a covenant he has made, and He takes covenants very seriously and expects us to keep covenants, even ones he has made with us today. God is so gracious he forgives us, when we truly ask for forgiveness. But my personal experience, though I know I am  TRULY forgiven and God puts my trespass as far as East is from West away from me (Psalm 103:11-12), there is usually an earthly consequence. So to summarise God NEVER breaks a covenant, it us that trip and break our end of the covenant, but we are forgiven always because God loves us with a covenant love.

Upright conduct

By definition God is upright, he cannot be anything else. “To declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” (Psalm 92:15).