God's Standard of Righteousness*

      Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God with great authority as He taught the Beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer and the Golden Rule. He taught that with the Kingdom of God comes the righteousness of God. Jesus told His listeners not to be worried about what they will eat, drink or wear. If God provides glory for the flowers and food for the birds of the earth, how much more will He care for you? "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek): for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need for all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for these things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Mt. 6:25-34, excerpt).

     Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed, Paul wrote. God's standard is His righteousness, His kingdom, which is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. 

     There were religious leaders in Christ's time, scribes and Pharisees, who prided themselves and demanded of others that they should live righteously according to the Law. However, this kind of religious righteousness pales in comparison to the righteousness of God available to us. Jesus said: "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Mt. 5:20). 

     Paul described the (self) righteousness of man: "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh God...there is none that doeth good, no, not one...Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Rom. 3:10-18). By this we understand that all have sinned.

     Paul prayed to God for Israel, that they might be saved. He described them this way, which is what Jesus was addressing above: "...they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." (Rom. 10:1-7). However, Paul said that the Word of God says this to us: "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed...For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (v. 8-13). Israel relied upon their own righteousness rather than God's. Jesus fulfilled the Law for us - He is God's standard of righteousness, therefore, belief and confession in Him is the righteousness of God.

     Righteousness is not found in religious acts, as God scolded His people through the prophet, Isaiah. The people fasted and observed special days, all the while their behavior and words showed that they neither knew God nor His righteousness. God told His prophet: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew thy people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God." (Isa. 58:1-2). 

     In another place, Isaiah wrote: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade away as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities." (Isa. 64:4-7).

     Sin has separated us from God, who, as we confess our sins to Him, is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

     As He promised in Isaiah, God wants to do a transformative work of His righteousness in us: "...all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee...No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their (**aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) righteousness is of me, saith the LORD." (Isa. 54:11-17, excerpt). This is not the result of man's own attempts at righteousness, but of God's righteousness given to us through Jesus Christ, the aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega (see **note below).

     The LORD promises the voice of joy, and the voices of the bride and bridegroom praising God as the LORD returns them to their land from captivity. (Jer. 33:11). The LORD also says: "Behold, the days come...that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel, and to the house of Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness." (v. 14-16). 

     We see here again that the righteousness of God, by which we are called, comes not through our own religious efforts but through The Branch of David, who is the Messiah/Christ Jesus. Through the righteousness of God comes joy, celebration, praises and thanksgiving to Him.

     The apostle Paul, who having once been convinced of his own self-righteousness as a Pharisee concerning the Law, wrote to the church that they should follow his example now as he reaches for the high calling of Christ instead: "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ....and do count them as dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him , and the power of his resurrection...being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead...this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus... " (Phil. 3:1-17, excerpt).

     We are to be dead to the world, and alive to Christ. There is no confidence to be put into the self-attained righteousness of the flesh but only in the perfect righteousness of God that can only be found through Jesus Christ. Are we walking before the world as examples of His righteousness? We cannot attain the Kingdom of God through religion but through relationship with God.

     According to the world, the righteousness of God attained through Christ's death on the cross is foolishness that makes no sense. Man's own efforts, however, the world understands. (see 1 Cor. 1:18-23). However, Paul also wrote: "But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles), Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. (see also Rom. 1:16-17)...God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty...and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." (1 Cor. 1:24-30).

     The world's wisdom is not wisdom at all but only Christ Jesus who is made wisdom to us.

     The prophet Daniel was confessing his own sins and the sins of his people when the angel of God, Gabriel, appeared to him and revealed the timeline of the first coming of Christ, His death, and the so-called wisdom of this world that would fight against this knowledge. (Dan. 9:20-21). The purpose of the wisdom of God, however, to be accomplished through this prophesied time period called "seventy weeks" was explained to Daniel by the angel: "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy." (v. 23-24). Working to prevent this outcome, the ruler that represents the power and wisdom of this world will promise and create a covenant of peace for one week (7 years), but in the middle of that seven years, he will break that peace treaty to destroy God's city and sanctuary and bring a war of desolations. (v. 25-27). This ruler, whom we refer to as the antichrist, will be destroyed and God's wisdom will prevail and be accomplished.

     Now is the time to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness that Jesus completed on the cross and with His resurrection. Upon His resurrection, the disciples of Christ were transformed from those who hid in fear into those who preached the Gospel of Christ fearlessly. We are to pursue His righteousness and not our own. For those who do not yet know Jesus Christ like this, now is the time to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth as Paul wrote above.

*Based upon Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson, Jr.'s 3/2/25 message to the church. If you would like to hear the complete message, you can find it on Dr. Stevenson's Facebook page. Dr. Stevenson's video messages are also found on You Tube at Kenneth Stevenson. To contact or support this ministry, or to request prayer, you can write to PO Box 154221, Waco, TX, 76705. To find out more about the Shroud of Turin, and to receive a free e-book now available in several languages, go to http://www.theshroudofturin.org/freebook.

**NOTE: aleph-tav written in Hebrew as אֶת, are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The meaning of the two pictographic Hebrew letters can also be interpreted "Adonai (Lord) of the Cross/Covenant". In the New Testament, these letters are translated as Alpha and Omega written as ΑΩ , the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. These letters are those by which Jesus Christ identifies Himself in the Book of Revelation: see Rev. 1:8, Rev. 21:6, Rev. 22:13.