I pursue righteousness because I hate this world’s darkness. I get tired of it and am sickened by its pull on me. I look forward to the time that these effects of sin no longer exist.

I, like all Christians, seek to be right with God. It’s a goal that I know all believers desire and want to hold on to. Being right with Him is to taste, breathe, and feel the purity of His goodness, and to be able to draw from His power.

And that’s key— drawing from His power. We have to be so careful in our longing for righteousness. If not, we can easily fall into the trap of a self-generated righteousness by which we congratulate ourselves after having performed a checked off list of rules. We congratulate ourselves because we then think and feel that we’re deserving of going to heaven. However, such obedience to rules alone, on our own, is self-defeating (Galatians 2: 16).

The truth of the matter is that when we act from self-righteousness, we act from a sinful nature. True righteousness, which is godly righteousness, is not a part of our fallen human nature. So we don’t want to look inside ourselves for righteousness. It’s not there. “There is none righteous, no not one,” says Romans 3: 10.

We have to look outside of ourselves for true righteousness. That, of course, means looking to and accepting Jesus as our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1: 30). It means letting Him come into us and letting Him live His life through us. That is also what it means to “walk in the Spirit.” The Spirit, of course, has the power that is capable of covering, instilling and cultivating within us the righteousness of Jesus.

For this to effectively work, we have to understand, remember, and humbly accept at all times, that without Jesus, we cannot enjoy and manifest true righteousness (John 15: 5).

Pursue Jesus!

“The LORD detests the way of the wicked, but He loves those who pursue righteousness.” Proverbs 15: 9