Chapter 9: The Righteousness of God

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."  Matthew 6:33

The righteousness of God, says Jesus, is the one thing to be   sought in this life.  Food and clothing are minor matters in comparison with it.  God will supply them, as a matter of course, so that anxious care and worriment need not be expended on them; but to secure God's kingdom and His righteousness should be the only object of life.

In 1 Corinthians 1:30 we are told that Christ is made unto us righteousness as well as wisdom, and since Christ is the wisdom of God and in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, it is evident that the righteousness which He is made to us is the righteousness of God.  Let us see what this righteousness is.

In Psalms 119:172 the Psalmist thus addresses the Lord, "My tongue shall speak of Thy word, for all Thy commandments are righteousness."  The commandments are righteousness, not simply in the abstract, but they are the righteousness of God. For proof read the following: -

"Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look upon the earth beneath, for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner; but my salvation shall be forever and my righteousness shall not be abolished.  Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.”  Isaiah 51:6,7

What do we learn from this?  That they who know the righteousness of God are those in whose heart is His law, and therefore that the law of God is the righteousness of God.