#righteou

God invites us all to heaven on one single condition: righteousness. God told Isaiah that He would “make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb lime” (28:17).

So, what is righteousness? God Himself embodies righteousness; it is who He is. Being righteous means always doing the right thing, making the right decisions, choosing the right way. Everything God does is righteous, so if we do something that God would not do it would be unrighteous.

 We are met with daunting expectations. What do we do?

We are all sinners, and we all most likely can identify with multiple descriptions of people who do not live according to the laws and standard of righteousness that God set.

“‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’ Their throats are like open graces; their tongues practice deceit.’ ‘The poison of the vipers is on their lips.’ ‘Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’ ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.’ ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes’” (Romans 3:10-18).

This is who we are: prideful, foolish, inconsiderate people who disregard everything that God stands for. That is, this is who we are without Jesus. 

Yes, we must remember that we are sinners. But when comparing ourselves to God’s standards, we need to remember grace. Sometimes it is so easy to feel guilty for not being better, closer to the example that God has set for us. The guilt can consume us and drive us to think and act differently. We forget the grace, which makes it so that there is no reason to feel guilty. 

Obviously, we all know that nobody is perfect. God recognizes that we cannot meet His standards, no matter how hard we try. So He made a way for us to get into heaven and be with Him: Jesus.

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5:6-11)

This unfair, outrageous exchange God made for us is fueled by His love for us, and we have nothing else we have to do but to simply accept it. “Christ died for sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” (1 peter 3:18). You need to let go of the guilt; accept your imperfections, and then accept Jesus’ perfection and accept the trade- off. Then you can let go of any and all guilt and approach God blameless, confident, and pure.