Righteousness is Doing What's Right

Before we can be "righteous" we first must know what is "right". Right doesn't come from science, education, philosophy, entertainment, the government, or even notable figures. Right comes from God!

Deuteronomy 32:4 "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he."

There are so many things said in this one passage!  God is rock solid! He is unwavering and those who stand on his Word stand solidly. When God does anything it's to perfection. There is no error in any of his ways. What he wills is what is right. When God determines the scale for justice what he says is the metric to which mankind must adhere for it is right. God's rightness is truth. What is truth? It's what God says and wills! Why? Because God has never done wrong. He is the standard for rightness and because he is the standard, doing what God does is what's right. How are men to be righteous? We're to do as God does, do what he wills and do it with enthusiasm!

Job 33:26 "He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness."

This is our job assignment! When mankind was told to "tend the garden", it was to praise God. When we praise God is to profess our admiration. It is done through prayer. We respect God when we pray to him and prayer is how we praise him. Do we praise God in song? We sure do, but it's singing our prayer!

We see from Job that becoming righteous is done with joy! There is no such thing as miserable righteousness, because doing what is right is delightful to do. Doing right things out of coercion and force isn't rightness; it's doing right things with a wrong disposition. Hence, doing right things because we have to do them is wrong! These are the sins of the Pharisees.

 Matthew 12:34 "O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."

Apparently, there was another generation of vipers, because Jesus spoke of "this generation of vipers". Who were they before the Pharisees? They were here from the beginning. Adam and Eve listened to the serpent and were the first generation of vipers. They did evil because they listened to the serpent, that vile viper, and because they listened to him, they made excuses to God.  Adam and Eve were unrighteous, but because they showed sorrow, God's grace was more powerful than the viper! The Pharisees weren't righteous because they merely did the things of God. They failed to do them with enthusiasm and with love! Being righteous boils down to joy and love because if we have those, being righteous is our nature!

 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Being righteous is "slaying the serpent". He is the master of the flesh and we become new creatures, no longer vipers, when that varmints head is crushed! (Genesis 3:15).  How do we crush the serpents head? We bruise it by making ourselves a living sacrifice to God! We become new creatures and quit being snakes, when we cut off the flesh. That's doing God's will rather than the serpents!

When the pagan god Dagon was near God's throne we see this happening:

1 Samuel 5:2 "When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. 3 And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. 4 And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him."

Dagon represents "the flesh". When Dagon faced the Lord God, he fell once, then twice, before the Lord. After that Dagon was shorn of his appendages and remained only a stump. Symbolically, Dagon became a new creature. His flesh was cut off. As Christians we're to fall down in the face of the Lord in submission and become new persons! We are to cut off the flesh which offends God. When we become a new creature, we change. That change is doing as God wills and having joy in doing it! There was no joy in Dagonville that day because Dagon was no longer viable. On the other hand when we fall on our humble faces enthusiastically, we become a new creation. That's how we do what is right!  Obeying Dagon was doing what was right in our own eyes. Obeying God is doing what's right in his!