02/25/14 I saw something that raised this thought...

02/25/14 I saw something that raised this thought...

When you are righteous (by the work of God's grace), you want others to be righteous also because God requires and provides it, and you become compassionate, forgiving and intermittently hopeful and saddened.

I saw a statement that said,
"When you think you are righteous, you expect others to be as well and you become demanding, judgmental and constantly disappointed."

Of course, if a person only "thinks" he is righteous, without actually being delivered from sin by the grace of God, then he probably is laden with those negative traits. But if a person is, "walking in the light as Christ is in the light" (1 Jn. 1:7) then he is, "righteous, even as Christ is righteous" (1 Jn. 3:7) and he is a partaker of Divine nature (2 Pe. 1:4) and he has the mind of Christ (Ph. 2:5).

Those who are transformed from children of disobedience into children of God (Ep. 2:1-10) and transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of light (Ac. 26:18), think (correctly) that they are righteous.

I could not tell from the other person's statement whether he was referring to everyone who thinks of himself as righteous or only the unsaved, since he did not say. However, the statement, with it's negativity, is only true when it applies to a sinner who is deceiving himself into thinking that his self righteousness is true righteousness.

I shared this because so many of my friends are being accosted in society with the teachings of defeatist and sinning religion, which denies personal righteousness and says that any claim to righteousness is false and sinful.

Through the obedience/sacrifice of Christ, many are MADE righteous.
Romans 5:19
(19) For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Abel WAS righteous, through faith and his "more excellent sacrifice."
Hebrews 11:4
(4) By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

God is committed to the righteous.
1 Peter 3:12
(12) For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

The righteous are separate from the sinners and the ungodly.
1 Peter 4:18
(18) And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Whoever is born of God DOES righteousness.
1 John 2:29
(29) If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.

Whoever DOES righteousness IS righteous.
1 John 3:7
(7) Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.