What is Righteousness?

One night in 2011 when Wendy and I were divorced, I had an encounter with God that changed me for life. During the encounter, I was earnestly begging Him to tell me what righteousness is at its essence. What He said to me is “Righteousness is nothing more and nothing less than being like me”. The picture I saw was like a planet orbiting a sun, and the closer it got to the sun, the more the parts of the planet NOT LIKE the sun were burned up. He said, “I cannot join to myself that which is not like myself”. Tonight we are going to unpack why this is such an important revelation.

God’s goal is to be united with us

• Genesis 3:8-9: And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
• Exodus 29:46: And they shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.
• John 17:20-23: My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
• Romans 6:5: For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
• Revelation 21:3: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

Righteousness comes not from a set of actions but being transformed into his likeness

• Luke 11:42: But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
• Matthew 5:20: For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
• 2 Corinthians 3:18: And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
• Romans 10:4: For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
• Romans 12:2: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
• 1 Corinthians 13:1-3: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Jesus came to put a new heart into us

• Ezekiel 36:26-27: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
• John 3:1-8: Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God… Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
• John 14:26: But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
• Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Our main focus then is to be transformed; our works will naturally flow out of this

• Luke 6:44-46: for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
• John 14:15: If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
• Philippians 2:13: For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
• Ephesians 2:8-10: For by grace you have been saved through