The Righteousness of God

The following is from a talk given by Pastor Zac Poonen of Christian Fellowship Church in Bangalore, India.

• The reason why many Christians never attain to the righteousness of God is because they are satisfied with their external righteousness (that of the Law).
• The righteousness of the Law can distinguish between right and wrong (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) but brings death. The righteousness of God, however, listens to the promptings of the Holy Spirit (the tree of life).
• Jesus died for a lot more than to just forgive our sins.
• To glorify God is to finish the work He gave us to do on earth (John 17:4).
• The righteousness of God…
—Is seen in Jesus’ one-line autobiography: “I came from heaven never to do what I want to do but only what My Father wants Me to do” (John 6:38).
—Chooses the profitable things from among all the lawful things we could do (1 Corinthians 6:12).
—Leads us to never please ourselves (Romans 15:3).
—Makes others know that we are willing to be disturbed at any time, even when it’s not convenient for us (e.g. Jesus spent time with Nicodemus in the middle of the night - John 3:2).
—Is that where we cannot do whatever we want, whenever we want. In other words, our time is not always “opportune” (John 7:6).
—Never expects anything of anyone and has no inward complaint against anyone. Jesus didn’t expect anyone to offer Him even a place to sleep for the night (John 7:53-8:2).
—May make us leave a place of outward revival, when humanly speaking that doesn’t make sense (Luke 4:40-44; 1 Corinthians 2:14-15).
—Leads us from being immature children of God (Romans 8:16) to become mature sons (and daughters) of God – those who are not only born of the Spirit but led by the Spirit as well (Romans 8:14).
—Is willing to be “interrupted” by God when we’re busy doing something else.
—Leads us to continuously peel away the layers of selfishness within us – like we would peel away the layers of an onion.
—Is to have the same attitude as Jesus had in every circumstance and towards every person (Philippians 2:5) – one that is free from selfishness and pride (v3);
—Leads us to always put ourselves first in the matter of judgment (I Peter 4:17).