Read the Bible and you will soon learn that righteousness is a big deal to God — so important, in fact, that being righteous is a pre-requisite for eternal life.
How do you understand righteousness? Most people define a righteous person as one who is holy, morally upright or good. We intuitively understand righteousness as a chosen attitude and set of behaviours originating within a person, and therefore as a matter of human decision and effort.
Lutheran Christians hold to a different, counter-intuitive, understanding of righteousness. The righteousness that leads to eternal life is not —cannot be — generated from within ourselves, but is gifted to us by God. It is the righteousness of Christ.
St. Paul teaches: “For our sake he made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5: 21)
How did that happen? When Jesus died on the cross your sin was put to death in him, and, in exchange, God has gifted you with Christ’s righteousness (Martin Luther called this the “joyous exchange”).
Perhaps, even despite your best efforts, you don’t feel particularly righteous. Don’t trust your feelings on this. Listen, rather, to what God reveals in the Bible. You have been made righteous, not by your own willpower, effort or decision, but because of what God has done for you in Christ. Trust, believe and give thanks to God!
