Resonance

Tag: righteousness and Justice

  • Righteousness: the Operating System of God’s Kingdom

    Righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne. That means God rules in righteousness. That also means what is righteous is what is pleasing and acceptable in the sight of God. Thus, righteousness is right standing with God. We cannot stand before God if we are not righteous. We cannot also represent God if we are not righteous. God alone is right, good and true. He is the only determiner, definer and demonstrator of what is right. Something is only right because God makes it so. Therefore, we cannot seek the Kingdom of God without seeking His Righteousness. His Righteousness is His Way of being and doing right. That means He determines how we become righteous and what deeds are righteous.

    The sin of Adam and Eve is that they ate from the tree of death after listening to the voice of the devil. Thus, they gained the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, they now determined what was good and evil without God. We cannot be righteous outside of God. Ask atheists; the foundation of good and evil collapses when God is taken out of the equation. Without the presence of God, we cannot even differentiate between good and evil anymore. Nothing is inherently right without God. If God says go and you stay, you have faulted. He is the Judge of All, and He judges what is right rightly because He alone has the right to determine what is right.

    The Nature of Righteousness

    Righteousness is first of all a nature. You don’t do to become. You become, then you do. You can never do righteous deeds if you are not righteous. Righteousness is what is pleasing in the sight of God. That means God alone gets to determine what is good and what is evil. However, we were not able to live fully according to His Law. Therefore, we couldn’t stand before Him blameless. The Law was only to show us that we will never achieve righteousness by what we do. Jesus became our substitute in this regard. He is the Righteousness of God. Therefore, if we believe in Him and accept His Life, which is a righteous life, we gain access to the presence of God. By this same access, we are able to live the life of righteousness God has fashioned for us.

    This is why Righteousness comes first in the order; Righteousness, Peace, Joy in the Holy Ghost. Righteousness is when we accept the Lordship of God. This means we give Him the full right to rule our lives and be the one to determine how we live. You cannot claim to be in the Kingdom if you are living according to your own understanding. We ought to seek first His Kingdom and Righteousness. Righteousness is the operating system of the Kingdom of God. It is His government and constitution. The nature of righteousness then flows into our words, works and ways.

    Words, Works & Ways

    Your input determines your output, in computer language. You cannot say you are righteous when you do not bear any fruits of righteousness. Yes, righteous is who you are. Righteousness will naturally flow into what you do. What you do cannot make you righteous but you being righteous will flow into what you do. It’s that simple! Feeding a child does not make you a mother but a mother feeds her child. Being a mother is who you are and it will naturally flow into what you do. Therefore, you are making excuses when we don’t see your righteous works. The very first “output” we will see is your words. The Righteousness of God is the Word of God. If you have the Righteousness of God, you will speak the words of God.

    There are works God has predestined for us to walk in. These works are righteous, for they please the LORD. This is God’s way of doing right. Because we have the Spirit of God within us, we are able to perform the Kingdom duties given unto us. Wherever the Kingdom of God is, the Righteousness of God is established there. Our ways refer to how we do things as our works refer to what we do. How we do things is as important as what we do. The Righteousness of God makes sure that we don’t try to use evil to achieve good. Don’t try to help God by giving birth to Ishmael. God has His Way of doing things, and righteousness demands that we follow that particular way.

  • Mercy and Truth, Righteousness and Justice!

    In my studies of the book of Psalms, I discovered a collocation. I saw mercy and truth together. Whenever I saw righteousness in certain contexts, I simply knew justice was lurking somewhere behind. I’ve studied Scriptures meticulously enough to know that nothing in the Bible is ever by accident or coincidence. Even the details we think are redundant are tremendously intentional. These collocations were no different. Today being the introduction, I’ll simply give a general overview and show you all where these four occur in Scriptures. The next four parts will go into detail for each one.

    In the courtroom of Heaven, God sits as the Judge. Satan, meaning accuser, has a role in the courts as well. In fact, Satan’s role as the accuser of the brethren in the courts of Heaven is more well known to the average believer than our role. If you don’t know your role and authority in these courts, a lot of things in life will not only confuse you; it will make you a victim. Thus, this 5-part series is given for you to understand these 4 pillars that operate in the courtroom of Heaven; Mercy, Truth, Righteousness and Justice.

    Every single decision, intent and outcome passes through this courtroom. Whether in eternity or in time, every decision is foreknown by the Omniscient God, and He chooses to allow or approve based on the 4 collocations. That means nothing has ever happened that wasn’t first approved, acknowledged or allowed by God. If God does not allow or permit something to happen, it can never happen. This Truth can make a lot of us confused, especially when we focus on all the evil and atrocious activities that do happen. However, the fact that God allows it does not mean He condones it.

    God is Just, therefore, He cannot disobey His own Word. He will never disobey one Truth to obey another. He justifies every single action He takes, although He does not need to justify Himself to anybody. Every single decision He makes is merciful, true, righteous and just. All parametres must be fulfilled. That’s how God works. Every single thing that God has ever done and will ever do is within these 4 pillars, all at the same time. Jesus dying on the Cross is the pinnacle of this revelation. On the Cross, we saw Mercy, Truth, Righteousness and Justice all fulfilled.

    I don’t want to be God. Only God can be God. Because this is so incomprehensible, especially to the human mind. Do you understand? If God wants to show you mercy, He has to be true, right and just. If God wants to judge, it ought to be merciful, true and righteous. At no point has any been left out. If God is to choose Jacob and not Esau, He needs to justify His decision. If God favours you instead of anyone else, it’s not random selection. Predestination and election is approved in the courts of Heaven. Many of the unfoldings of this life were approved before the foundations of the world.

    God designed and approved every single person’s destiny before the foundations of the world. Do you get it? He designed everything before He started. That notwithstanding, predestination and foreknowledge are two different things. There are also things God did not predestine but allowed although He foreknew. Even what He allows is based on Mercy, Truth, Righteousness and Justice. It’s not all things that you need to understand before you believe. This should be one of them. If you check really well, there’s a balance to it too. Mercy balances Truth. Righteousness balances Justice. What is Truth without Love? What is Grace without Truth?  Think about it! What is Justice without Righteousness? What is Justice without Truth and what is Mercy without Justice?

    There are many things that God allowed, although He never predestined, because legality was secured by the kingdom of darkness. That’s why you need to understand the jurisdiction of the devil. Because God is just and the person involved broke God’s Word, satan can secure rights in the court of Heaven to perpetuate evil legally. How? An example is when Adam fell. Adam not only disobeyed God; he directly obeyed the devil. The Truth of God’s Word says we are slaves to whomever we obey. Because of this truth, justice demands that we become slaves to death – the one we obeyed.

    However, because of God’s mercy, Adam was not directly cursed. He cursed the ground for Adam’s sake and did not allow humanity to reap the full repurcussion of our gross disobedience. Instead, He paved a way of escape from death according to His Righteousness. He foreknew that Adam would sin but still went on to create man because He had predestined that although man would fall, He would save man according to His Righteousness.

    What I mean by “according to His Righteousness” is that God cannot now speak words for our death penalty to be paid although He is All-Powerful. That would violate His own Word when He said “ye shall surely die”. So someone still needs to die for justice to be fully served. The person needs to be a man for it to be right and just. Thus, God became man, lived a perfect life so He can exchange His life for our death and suffer the full repurcussions of our sins, satisfying Mercy, Truth, Righteousness and Justice. The wrath of God against sin needed to be satisfied; that wrath was poured upon Christ.

    This is going to be an exciting series, isn’t it? Mercy, Truth, Righteousness, Justice!