Righteousness & Sin

What is Righteousness?

The world defines it this way, “the quality of being morally right or justifiable: 'we had little doubt about the righteousness of our cause’, 'conviction of his own moral righteousness gave his oratory an irresistible power.’"
— Oxford Languages

Dr. Andrew Farley’s BibleQuestions.com defines it this way.
Righteousness, in a biblical sense, refers to being in right standing with God. It is not something we achieve through our own efforts but is a gift from God through faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that no one is righteous on their own (Romans 3:10), but through Jesus, we have been made righteous. This means that we have been given the righteousness of God Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Romans 3:10 NASB 2020
as it is written: “THERE IS NO RIGHTEOUS PERSON, NOT EVEN ONE;

2 Corinthians 5:21 NASB 2020
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

When we believe in Jesus, we are not just declared righteous in a legal sense, but we are also made new at the core of our being. We are given a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27), and we become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). This transformation means that we are truly righteous, not just in theory but in reality. We are no longer slaves to sin but have become slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:18).

Ezekiel 36:26–27 NASB 2020
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My ordinances.

2 Peter 1:4 NASB 2020
Through these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world on account of lust.

Romans 6:18 NASB 2020
and after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness.

The Lord Jesus was more succinct. In Matthew 5:48 he said

Matthew 5:48 NASB 2020
Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

There is a serious problem with the world’s definition of righteousness. In defining righteousness as being morally right or justifiable, it fails to answer the question of what constitutes moral rightness. This is the question that the Lord Jesus answers unequivocally in His succinct definition.

Perfection is the standard, and not just behavioral perfection such as exemplary moral conduct, but perfection of the kind that only God is or can be. For us this is an unattainable goal. Yet for us to be acceptable to and compatible with God, it is the standard we must meet.

Nowhere is this made more clear than in the Old Testament Law written and dictated by God and handed down to the Hebrew people by Moses. This law had 613 stipulations, every one of which was to be kept without fail. No one could do that, of course. We all know that as soon as a rule or law is put into place people naturally begin testing it or looking for a way around it. That’s what the Scriptures are talking about when in 1 Corinthians 15:56 the Spirit through Paul tells us that the power of sin is the Law.

No one could keep the law, yet it was a reflection of the sort of perfection required to be acceptable to and compatible with God. Underscoring this crucial truth was the tabernacle, God’s dwelling place among the Hebrew people.

There were three sections. In the outer section, the people could gather, fellowship, and hear teaching. Only priests could enter the holy middle section. There, incense was burned and sacrifices were made. Beyond this holy place was the third section called the most holy place, or the holy of holies. This room was separated from the rest of the tabernacle by a very thick curtain. Inside the 20x20x20 cubit (about 30x30x30 feet) room was the Ark of the Covenant. This was the place where God met with the High Priest once each year. It was God’s dwelling place among His people.

Elaborate ritual cleansing was needed for the High Priest to enter without being killed. He had to be pure and righteous to be acceptable. The law stipulated that no one else should even look at the holy things even for a moment or they would die as we read in Numbers 4:20.

Numbers 4:20 NASB 2020
but they shall not come in to see the holy objects even for a moment, or they will die.”

In 1 Chronicles 13:9-10 we read of Uzzah who, when the Ark of the Covenant was about to fall off the wagon carrying it back to Israel after it had been captured, reached out to steady it and died immediately.

1 Chronicles 13:9–10 NASB 2020
When they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzza put out his hand to hold the ark, because the oxen nearly overturned it. But the anger of the LORD burned against Uzza, so He struck him because he had put out his hand toward the ark; and he died there before God.

Clearly righteousness is important. But this is not the arbitrary dictate of a power mad and overbearing taskmaster. Righteousness is an absolute requirement because God is perfect. He is without flaw or defect. He is Holy. As such, nothing imperfect can exist in Him or in His presence. That is what the tabernacle and the ordinances of the law surrounding it are designed to help us understand.

Am I Righteous?

To be acceptable to and compatible with God, we must be righteous, yet as we saw at the very beginning of this discussion, there is not one single righteous person on earth.

The obvious question is can we be made righteous, and if we can, how does that come about? Proverbs 10:16 puts it this way,

Proverbs 10:16 NASB 2020
The wages of the righteous is life,
The income of the wicked, punishment.

Romans 6:23 echoes this, saying,
For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If Life is the wages of the righteous and the gift of God is eternal Life, then righteousness must come from Him as well. Romans 5:17 says that righteousness is a gift given by the grace of God.

Romans 5:17 NASB 2020
For if by the offense of the one, death reigned through the one, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

This is salvation. The Greek word for saved is sozo. This word means more than simply rescued. It means healed, and made whole. This is what is accomplished in everyone who acknowledges the Lord Jesus. We find this imagery in Ephesians 2:5

Ephesians 2:5 NASB 2020
even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, [He] made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

We were dead to God, but He made us alive to Him. We have been saved, rescued, healed, made whole. Having done this He went on in Ephesians 2:6, saying

Ephesians 2:6 NASB 2020
and [He] raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

This is something very important for us to see. He (God) raised us up with Him (the Lord Jesus) and seated us WITH Him (God) in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Given all we’ve learned about being in the presence of God and living to tell about it, this is an incredible claim. We’re seated WITH God and IN the Lord Jesus.

Obviously, we are speaking of something spiritual here, but even so, to survive such an encounter and place of spiritual residence, we need to be righteous. And this passage isn’t hyperbole. the Lord Jesus Himself said this in John 17:23

John 17:23 NASB 2020
I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and You loved them, just as You loved Me.

Then just three verses later in John 17:26 he said

John 17:26 NASB 2020
and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

This is impossible unless you are righteous. But wait, there’s more!

2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that

2 Corinthians 5:21 NASB 2020
He [Father] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Notice what the Spirit says here. The reason Jesus stood in for us and served the death sentence we deserved as SO THAT we would become the righteousness of God in Him.

But, I Still Sin

You have trusted the Lord Jesus to be your only hope of rescue, healing, and wholeness. You have put your faith in Him for righteousness and the eternal life that yields. Even so, from time to time you find yourself with attitudes and actions that are, shall we say, less than godly.

There are many who simply cannot reconcile these strong statements about righteousness with the fact of their continuing ungodly conduct. Consequently, many have taught that the righteousness of which the Scriptures speak in the context of believers is somehow positional or judicial.

You may have heard that when the Scriptures speak of your righteousness, they mean that you have merely been declared righteous, or only credited with righteousness. You may have been lead to believe that actual matter-of-fact righteousness is something to be attained only in the sweet by and by, over Jordan, in heaven.

This is often framed in terms of sanctification. Many believe and teach that sanctification is an ongoing process. It can be a point of contention for some. That is unfortunate, and unnecessary.

On the one hand, sanctification is a state of being. You either are, or you aren’t.
On the other hand, sanctification is often said to be an ongoing process.

These two ways of understanding sanctification can both be accepted as long as we are clear about what we are talking about when we use the term.

Who we are

The Greek word translated into English as sanctified is hagios. Sanctified is not the only English word used to translate hagios however. It is also rendered holy and saint. All three of these English words, sanctified, holy, and saint translate the Greek word hagios.

By definition hagios means sanctified, set apart.
By definition hagios means made holy as a person.
By definition hagios means saint.

It describes your being, who you are.

For many, the word sanctification is understood to mean having our attitudes and actions transformed by the renewing of our mind. This of course refers to our doing, our growth and maturity, so that we conduct ourselves like spiritual adults.

Sanctification hagios does not mean this, but as long as we are clear what we mean, we do not need to object strenuously to those using it in this way. If we are to use it this way, we must be sure to be extra clear that we mean the setting apart, or sanctification, of our attitudes and actions, what we do, rather than the hagios setting apart or making holy of our selves, what we are.

Our toothbrush provides a good example of something that is sanctified. It is set apart (sanctified) for a specific use and it is sanctified for use by a specific person.

One time when I gave this example someone said that their wife sometimes uses their toothbrush. For such folks, we might change the analogy to the more vulgar example of a toilet brush. Surely that is being used for a dedicated purpose.

This is sanctification.

What we do

If I plant a black walnut in the ground, it sprouts as a tiny green shoot with two small leaflets. That is a Black Walnut tree. Small and delicate and prone to failure as it is, it will never become more “walnutty.” It IS a Black Walnut tree. Over time, it grows taller, sprouts branches, begins to give shade to the surrounding landscape. Finally one day it begins to bear fruit. Black Walnuts form on its twigs, they ripen and fall to the ground. This Black Walnut tree has matured and its behavior is that of a mature Black Walnut tree. It is not more of a Black Walnut tree than it was as a tender sprout, but it certainly looks different and behaves differently.

It is the same with us.

We begin spiritual life as babes. In Hebrews 5:12–14 we read,

Hebrews 5:12–14 NASB 2020
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil.

While we remain immature, we stumble and fall a great deal. James 3:2 puts it this way

James 3:2 NASB 2020
For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to rein in the whole body as well.

But we are not left alone in this state of immaturity. Father has promised to look after our growth as we are told in Philippians 1:6

Philippians 1:6 NASB 2020
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus.

We are called to this. Ephesians 4:15 says that

Ephesians 4:15 NASB 2020
we are to “grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ,”

Similarly, 1 Peter 2:5 says that we are

1 Peter 2:5 NASB 2020
being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

This is not becoming something we are currently not. It is growing into the fullness of what we are. It is this process that many people actually have in mind when they use the word sanctification.

Dead Works

That we are not under the Law does not mean that we are simply passive. We are designed for godly conduct because we are born of God. We are His children, we are godly people (see Ephesians 2:10). So, when the Scriptures tell us how we ought to behave, they help us see the things we were designed to do.

Behaving rightly does not save us. Nor does good behavior earn us greater blessing from Father. However, since we are His kids, it does reflect on Him. We are His ambassadors, and poor behavior makes us ineffective in that role. Bad conduct also slows our growth into maturity because it quenches the Spirit. When we are preoccupied with worldly things or with feelings of guilt and shame over our failures, we have trouble hearing Him.

James uses Abraham as an example in his discussion of justification. James 2:21–23 reads,

James 2:21–23 NASB 2020
Was our father Abraham not justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called a friend of God.

This quotes Genesis 15:6, which took place before Abraham had any children.

Genesis 15:6 NASB 2020
Then he believed in the LORD; and He credited it to him as righteousness.

Part of the problem people can have with this is that the Scriptures say that Abraham's faith was "credited to him as righteousness." Since Christ had not yet come, from our human/temporal perspective Abraham had not been "made righteous." Holy Spirit did not dwell in him. In our experience, he had not been justified. We see this in

Hebrews 11:13 NASB 2020
All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen and welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

However, in the eternal realm, he had been made righteous because what Christ did at the cross (in time) was true outside time (in the eternal) for all time.

James says that Genesis scripture about Abraham’s righteousness was fulfilled. Paul quotes the Genesis passage as being realized in Abraham’s justification by faith; but James speaks of it as realized subsequently in Abraham’s work of offering Isaac which, he says, justified him.

Plainly, then, James must mean by 'works' the same thing as Paul means by 'faith,' only that he speaks of faith at its manifested development, whereas Paul speaks of it in its germination.

Abraham’s offering of Isaac was not a mere act of obedience. Honestly, it is difficult to conceive how anyone would agree to do such a thing out of obedience. More importantly, what kind of god would demand such?

No, for Abraham, this was an act of faith. Isaac was the subject of the promises of God, that in him Abraham’s seed should be called. The same God calls on Abraham to slay the subject of His own promise, when as yet there was no seed in whom those predictions could be realized. In fact Abraham is commended for exactly that kind of faith expressed through obedience in

Hebrews 11:9 NASB 2020
By faith he lived as a stranger in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;

Hence James saying that Abraham was justified by such a work, is equivalent to saying, as Paul does, that he was justified by faith itself. It was faith expressed in action.

It does not always happen this way. Sometimes faith is expressed in words. Romans 10:9–10 make this clear saying,

Romans 10:9–10 NASB 2020
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Paul goes on to ask,

Romans 10:14 NASB 2020
How then are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?

Those who do not believe in God do not call on Him. Therefore, their calling is an expression of faith.

At other times, faith is expressed in actions. We read in, James 2:25

James 2:25 NASB 2020
In the same way, was Rahab the prostitute not justified by works also when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

She would never have done this had she not believed in God. We know she had faith through the account in the book of Joshua. In Joshua 2:11 we find

Joshua 2:11 NASB 2020
When we heard these reports, our hearts melted and no courage remained in anyone any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth below.

It’s important when reading this passage from James that we remember that God had declared Abraham righteous because of his faith long before he sacrificed Isaac. We’re told that in, Hebrews 11:8

Hebrews 11:8 NASB 2020
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he left, not knowing where he was going.

This event was very early in his recorded life.

Later, but before he had any children at all and while Eliezer of Damascus would have become his heir, God promised him a son. It is at this time, way back in Genesis fifteen that we find that Abraham believed in the LORD; and He credited it to him as righteousness.

Clearly it was not Abraham’s obedient sacrifice of his son that saved him. Rather it was Abraham’s faith in God that led to his obedience—demonstrating for us that he was a man of great faith, and a friend of God.

This Raises Questions

Do we still sin?

Isn’t there a passage that says we cannot sin?

If I am in Christ and Christ is in me and He is perfect, why do I still sin?

If I sin, am I not unrighteous?

If I am righteous, it is still called sin?

These questions are all asking the same thing. Since I clearly still sin, how can I possibly be righteous?

Let’s look at 1 John 3:6-9

1 John 3:6–9 NASB 2020
No one who remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin continually, because he has been born of God.

Two Greek root words are in play with regard to the word sin in this passage. Hamartano and hamartia.

These both mean missing the mark. The first speaks of the commission of a wrong but the second is more pointed, referring to departure from human or divine standards of uprightness.

One thing we want to pay attention to is that the translators have used the words "practice" and "continually" in a number of key places. These words help us see the Greek verb forms used in each of these instances.

Here’s 1 John 3:6–9 again. This time with some Greek exposed.

1 John 3:6–9 NASB 2020
No one who remains in Him sins continually; (hamartano <264> a verb in the present tense, active voice, indicative mood) no one who sins continually (hamartano again) has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin (hamartia <266> a noun in the accusative case) is of the devil; for the devil has been sinning (hamartano) from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who has been born of God practices sin, (hamartia <266> this is a noun in the accusative case again) because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin continually, (hamartanein <264>) present, active, infinitive) because he has been born of God.

In Greek, a verb in the present tense indicates that the action is continuous (it’s going on at present). The active voice indicates that the subject is producing the action, and the indicative mood is the mood of certainty, meaning it is true, factual, actual, or real from the speaker’s point of view. There are some instances here where the word is a present active participle (who sins, who practices righteousness). These can act as a verb and as an adjective, but their form indicates continuous action as well.

In the last case "he cannot sin continually" at the end of verse nine, the word is hamartanein which is a verb in the present-tense, active, infinitive. That means that it is a continual action, but the subject is not specified. The difference in the word ending is simply because of the way the word is being used grammatically.

Consequently, the language does not allow us to read into this passage the thought that individual sins we may commit, or even frequent failures we find ourselves unable to overcome, are an indication that we are not in Christ or have somehow fallen out of Christ.

OK, but what about our frequent failures?

OK, so we do not live lifestyles characterized by sin. Still, we do sin, and we do it far more often than we would like. More than even seems reasonable. What are we to do with this?

Let’s walk together through the first 15 verses of Romans chapter Eight.
Let’s begin with Romans 8:1-2

Romans 8:1–2 NASB 2020
Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

We’re all familiar with the law of sin and death. It’s spelled out in Romans 6:23

Romans 6:23 NASB 2020
For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The reason there is now no condemnation at all for us is that we have been set free from that law. The wages of sin is no longer death for us. That seems like heresy. It seems like directly contradicting Scripture, but here’s the thing. Just to continue with the wages metaphor, we could say this, “the wages of sin is death, but the wages of righteousness is Life.”

We want to be careful with this declaration for obvious reasons. Righteousness cannot be earned. It is the gift of God and not achieved by things we do. That way, no one can brag about how great they are.

Nevertheless, we can exchange the word “wages” for “natural outcome.” We could accurately say, “the natural outcome of sin is death, but the natural outcome of righteousness is Life.”

This verse says that the gift of God is eternal Life. Earlier paul said this in

Romans 5:17 NASB 2020
For if by the offense of the one, death reigned through the one, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Righteousness and eternal Life are the same. We have already established that you are righteous and therefore, you have eternal Life. That is the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.

Next we find this in Romans 8:4

Romans 8:4 NASB 2020
so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Living lives characterized by the Spirit rather than the flesh, we meet the righteous requirement of the Law. This is, and must be, true because the Spirit of God lives within us. Since the requirement of the Law is fulfilled in us, our standing before God is the same as that of our older Brother who fulfilled the Law before us. We read that the Lord Jesus came to do just that in Matthew 5:17

Matthew 5:17 NASB 2020
“Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.

Now verses 5-8 tell us

Romans 8:5–8 NASB 2020
For those who are in accord with the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are in accord with the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

This is the problem we can face even as believers. We get the wrong mindset. Our spirits have been made new. That’s the essence of our being. But we live in the domain of darkness. We live in the valley of the shadow of death. This world is governed by our enemy and its systems and citizens exert a kind of gravitational pull on our souls. Everywhere we turn we are inundated with the fleshly and the earthy. With people, processes, and philosophies that draw our attention away from the Truth.

We are not slaves to this like the denizens of this domain, but neither are we unaffected by it. We still have emotions and they can be strong. Our wonderful Lord had emotions too, and He was tempted as well. The Scriptures tells us that He was tempted in every way just as we are. It was extremely difficult for Him to resist, just as it is for us.

When we fall to temptation, our mindset has shifted away from the Lord Jesus and the Kingdom of Light. We read about this in

James 1:14 NASB 2020
But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

In those moments (or maybe even seasons) our hearing is impaired by the noise of this world. Our vision is clouded by the affects of the fall. Our attitudes and actions fall prey to the old patterns of our past. They become temporarily aligned with the ways of the natural men and women in bondage to the evil one.

In that state of mind we find it very difficult to hear the Still Small Voice. We find ourselves unable to manifest the Life and Love within us. We are quenching the Spirit.

None of this changes our status as children of God. None of this results in Father turning His back on us. None of this brings His curse upon us. We are already forgiven for all of it.

Continuing in our passage we come to this

Romans 8:9–11 NASB 2020
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Although we sometimes conduct ourselves in the manner and ways of this world, we are not in the flesh. We are in the Spirit. This is the reason that our frequent failing and flailing, faltering and floundering does not mean that we are not saved, that we are not righteous, or that we are not sanctified.

We are not who we once were as 2 Corinthians 5:17 makes clear,

2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB 2020
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

2 Peter 3:18 NASB 2020 “but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” urges us to grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord. This is maturing spiritually. It is growing up into the fullness of our identity in the Lord Jesus. It’s a process He is energizing to be sure, but it is one with which our willing cooperation yields good fruit.