A Gate of Righteousness

By David Falk

Righteousness is an interesting word.  A lot has been written about it, but it is not well understood.  Many of the reformers made it a judicial position before God.  However, I think we can prove unassailably from the book of Romans that the gift of righteousness is the authority of God to be who you were called to be.  It is the authority to be the person that the Father predestined you to be.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul contrasted two different types of righteousness.  He wrote, ‘that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith’.  (Phil 3:9)  Every time we feel condemned then we are leveraging off our own righteousness.  We either become morose and defeated by it, or we rise up and become justified by it.  Either way, we are seeking to establish our own righteousness as opposed to receiving it by faith as a gift from God.

The singular most important thing in ministering to people is to help them find their righteousness that comes by gift.  In Christ, righteousness has been revealed and manifested - not in a theology or a position, but in a life.

A good example of a person receiving righteousness as a gift is the woman caught in adultery.  The Jews dragged her to the feet of Christ wanting to condemn her.  In her own heart, she would have felt condemned.  Yet Christ demonstrated mercy and forbearance, and passed over her sins.  He said to her, ‘Go your way.  From now on sin no more’.  (Jn 8:11)  He opened a gate of righteousness for her, and told her to go and walk in it.  She was free to live life and become the person she was predestined to be. 

We read in the psalms, ‘open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter through them’.  (Ps 118:19)  Also, David said, ‘He guides me in the paths of righteousness’.  (Ps 23:3)  This is fantastic.  There is a gate and then a pathway.  When we walk the pathway we are able to ‘become the righteousness of God in Him’.  (2 Cor. 5:21)

The Lord  opens a  gate  of  righteousness for us, and beckons us to enter through it.  This is an invitation to enter an abundant and fulfilling life in Christ.  Christ has condemned sin in the flesh.  As we follow Him, we can overcome sin and see it cut off and sent away.  Jesus didn’t send the woman away to simply try to live a better life.  He gave her grace and authority to walk the pathway of her predestination.