Theological Term of the Week

righteousness
That perfection of God whereby he conforms to his own holiness; his attribute of moral purity by which he always thinks and does what is right.

• From scripture:
  

  …to declare that the Lord is upright;
  he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. (Psalm 92:15 ESV)

  What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! (Romans 9:14 NKJV)

• From A Body of Doctrinal Divinity: Of the Justice or Righteousness of God by John Gill:

   Concerning this attribute of God, I shall,

  1. First, Show that it does belong to him, and is natural and essential to him. The scriptures do abundantly ascribe it to him; all rational creatures, angels and men, good and bad, acknowledge it in him, (Rev. 16:5; Ex. 9:27; Jer. 12:1; Dan. 9:9; Ps. 145:7) and remove all unrighteousness from him, and affirm there is none in him (Ps. 92:15; Rom. 9:14). And, indeed, without this attribute, he would not be fit to be the Governor of the world, and the judge of the whole earth; his government would be tyranny, and not yield that pleasure and delight to the inhabitants of it, it does; the reason of which is, because “righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne” (Ps. 97:1, 2). And from his love of righteousness, and constant performance of it, it may be concluded it is natural to him; as what is loved by men, and constantly done by them, shows it to be agreeable to the nature of them, (Ps. 11:7, 9:4) and, indeed, it is originally and essentially in God; it is in and of himself, and not of another; it is his nature and essence, and is not derived from another. Adam was righteous, but not of himself, God made him upright, or righteous; saints are righteous, not by their own righteousness, but by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them. But God is righteous in and of himself; his righteousness is essential and inderivative, and is incommunicable to a creature; it is not that by which men are made righteous, as Osiander dreamed; for though he who is Jehovah is their righteousness, yet not as he is Jehovah; for then they would be deified by him: the righteousness of God being his nature, is infinite and immutable; the righteousness of angels and men, in which they were created, was mutable; Adam lost his, and many of the angels lost theirs; but the “righteousness” of God is “like the great mountains”, as high, firm, and stable as they, and much more so (Ps. 36:6). Righteousness in creatures, is according to some law, which is the rule of it, and to which it is conformed, and is adequate so the law of God, which is holy, just, and true, is a rule of righteousness to men; but God has no law without himself, he is a law to himself; his nature and will the law and rule of righteousness to him. Some things are just, because he wills them, as such that are of a posture kind; and others he wills them because they are just, being agreeable to his nature and moral perfections. This is an attribute common to the three Persons in the Godhead, as it must be, since it is essential to Deity, and they partake of the same undivided nature and essence: hence the Father of Christ is called by him “righteous Father”, (John 17:25) and Christ, his Son; is called Jesus Christ “the righteous”, (1 John 2:1) and no doubt can be made of its being proper to the Holy Spirit, who convinces men “of righteousness and of judgment” (John 16:8). But,

Learn more: 

1. Blue Letter Bible, Don Stewart: Is God Righteous?
2. Bob Deffinbaugh: The Righteousness of God
3. Fred Zaspel: Four Aspects of Divine Righteousness
4. From my attributes of God posts: God’s Righteousness

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God's Righteousness

This is another edited post from the old blog, reposted in preparation for this week’s theological term.

That God is righteous means that what He thinks and what he does is always “excruciatingly correct,” to borrow a term from Miss Manners. There is moral perfection in every single thought and activity of God. 

God’s righteousness, then, is an aspect of his holiness. All of his actions are righteous because they have their source in God’s unchangeably holy character. We know that God’s actions are righteous simply because it is God who does them, for any thought or action that come from God comes from the one-and-only morally perfect being, from the One who exists as the perfect standard of righteousness.

If we use terms the same way they are used scripturally, then God’s righteousness and His justice are the same thing. Both terms—righteousness and justice—are translated from exactly the same words in the original languages. We don’t usually use the words as precise synonyms, however, and commonly save the word justice to refer to God’s righteousness as it pertains to his law giving and law enforcment, including his impartial punishment for lawbreakers and blessing for lawkeeping.

We call God’s righteousness one of his communicable attributes. The term communicable refers to those attributes that God shares (or “communicates) with us. This means that when we are righteous, we are exhibiting derived righteousness—righteousness that doesn’t come from us, but from God. If we are righteous, we are righteous because the Holy Spirit communicates righteousness to us. Even when we are glorified so that we become spotlessly righteous forever onward, it is due to the work of the God’s Spirit (Romans 8).

What does scripture teach us about God’s righteousness?

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. (Psalm 97:2 NASB)

Righteousness as an essential character of God, for righteousness and justice are the underpinnings of his rule; they determine how God acts as Lord over all the earth.

One of the most often quoted texts on God’s righteousness is Abraham’s question of God in Genesis 18:25:

Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the godly with the wicked, treating the godly and the wicked alike! Far be it from you! Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right? (NET)

Abraham appeals to God’s essential righteousness—and rightly so!—when he pleads for God to spare any righteous people who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah from his judgment against sin. Abraham understood that God’s righteousness (or his justice) keeps him from acting toward godly people in the same way that he acts toward the wicked. A righteous God will never give anyone judgment that they do not deserve.

God’s righteousness is the source of all his judgments:

….he now commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has set a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness…(Acts 17:31)

The judgment that is yet to come has its source in God’s righteousness. It is because God is righteous that he must judge sinful people. To forever overlook the immorality of mankind would not be in accordance with his perfect morality, so on a day that he has already determined he will display his righteousness through his condemnation of unrepentant sinners. 

In addition, that God keeps his word is a facet of his righteousness.

You have fulfilled your promise, for you are righteous. (Nehemiah 7:8 NET)

Because God is righteous, when he promises something, that promise will always be kept.

That God is righteous also means that he instructs us in how to be righteous.

Good and upright [or just] is the LORD; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way. (Psalm 25:8 NASB)

Since he is the only perfectly righteous one, he is also the only one who can tell us how to be righteous. It is from of his righteous and benevolent nature he reveals his perfect standards of righteousness to his creatures.

In the Old Testament, God’s righteousness is often closely associated with deliverance. For example:

My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day…. (Psalm 71:15 ESV)

….my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed. (Isaiah 51:6)

God delivers his people because he is righteous. Vindication for his people is a requirement of his righteous character.

What does it mean for us that our God is righteous? That God is righteous means that none of us ever receive less from God than what is right. When we go complaining to God about difficulties in our life, we can’t grumble about the unjustness of our suffering and be showing anything but our ignorance. After the psalmist doubted God’s righteousness and complained that things were not unfolding fairly for him, God vindicated his own righteousness by showing the psalmist the perfect justice coming in the end. Then the psalmist says of his own previously complaining self:

When my heart was embittered
And I was pierced within,
Then I was senseless and ignorant;
I was {like} a beast before You. (Psalm 73:21-22 NASB)

Our God is always right and just, even when we don’t understand how that could be true. Any complaints against what we receive from him are foolish.

And a righteous God is a God who can be believed. There is no room for doubting him, for an upright God keeps his word. If we have been born again, then God has promised us an inheritance and we can bank it. We will be kept for our eternal possession, because from God’s righteousness, come guaranteed promises.

For the LORD is righteous,
He loves righteousness;
The upright will behold His face.
(Psalm 11:7 NASB)

What is the duty of Christians, after they have received the sacrament of the Lord's supper?

The duty of Christians, after they have received the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, is seriously to consider how they have behaved themselves therein, and with what success;[1] if they find quickening and comfort, to bless God for it,[2] beg the continuance of it,[3] watch against relapses,[4] fulfil their vows,[5] and encourage themselves to a frequent attendance on that ordinance:[6] but if they find no present benefit, more exactly to review their preparation to, and carriage at, the sacrament;[7] in both which, if they can approve themselves to God and their own consciences, they are to wait for the fruit of it in due time:[8] but, if they see they have failed in either, they are to be humbled,[9] and to attend upon it afterwards with more care and diligence.[10]

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