Conformity: The Righteousness of God
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Point: Righteousness is conforming to the standard of God. It is the goal of every authority, power and principality that persons conform to their will and desires. The question is: to whom or what do we conform? The true believer in Christ lives to conform to the will and desire of Christ.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
King Solomon’s Righteousness [1 Kings 2-3]
King Solomon was one of the greatest king’s in Judah’s history, in all of Israel’s history. Why was he so blessed? Because he sought to be righteous before God. He conformed to the wishes of his father, King David, who was living at the end of his days in conformity to God.
Listen to King David’s words to his son Solomon:
When David’s time to die drew near, he commanded Solomon his son, saying, “I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man,
and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn,
that the Lord may establish his word that he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’
I truly believe it is the desire of every child to be pleasing to their parents, at some point in their life, if not all the time. The difficulty lies in the fact that our nature is bent towards unrighteousness, non-conformity. Paul shares this fact in the Book of Romans when he is speaking about the nature of man being to turn away from God and His righteousness.
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
Paul means by a “debased mind” one that is worthless, undiscerning, void of judgment (Romans 1:28) and reprobate. It is a person that has been abandoned to sin and error; that is disapproved and rejected. In extreme cases, apostasy. God says, that as we move closer to His Son’s return, society and culture will walk ever more in sin, a lack of discernment, and unrighteousness. Paul is 2 Timothy prophesies to this fact:
You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred.
They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.
They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!
People will act religious, but reject the Holy Spirit of God; the One who guides and prompts us to live righteously (Jn 14:26; 16:13).
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
And it is those who are led by the Spirit of God, that are the true children of God, not the religious whose hearts have not been conformed to God (Romans 8:14).
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Those following the Spirit of God will live righteously; they will conform to the standards of God at the heart. The Apostle Paul tells us that those people will be characterized by: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23).
King Solomon was a man who embodied these characteristics. He loved God and loved His father King David, choosing to obey their instructions and commands. He employed and displayed the characteristics of a spirit-driven man. He was kind to the Gileadite, Barzillia, who was faithful to his father when Absalom, Solomon’s brother, tried to steal the throne (1 Kgs 2:7). He extended grace, goodness, kindness, and gentleness to Shimei, a relative of King Saul, who denounced, cursed, and stoned King David, devilishly, as a bloodthirsty, worthless man for spilling the blood of the house of King Saul (2 Sam 16:5-13). He accused King David of unrighteousness when David was indeed acting in conformity to the standards of God; extending unmerited grace to Saul on numerous occasions, even though David could have taken his life, and ascend to the throne He had been anointed by God to rule.
Solomon’s desire to pursue God and his righteousness was further evidenced by his desire to rule with understanding and wisdom. He openly admitted to God, that he could not rule Israel righteously without help from God. So what does he do? He asks God to bless him with wisdom and understanding. Of all the things he could have asked God for, he asked for wisdom and understanding to rule effectively and fairly over the people put under his care (1 Kgs 3:7-13). How many of us would ask the same instead of health, riches, power, influence and/or fame?
Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”
The greatest need in our culture and society today are men and women who desire to know the difference between right and wrong, act rightly, who understand the times, and act justly as God would in the care and love of people. That is the greatest need in our society and culture; men and women who care about conforming to the standards of God, and who continuously act in conformity to the standards of God. Is that your prayer? Is that my prayer? That I would know and act in conformity to the standards and will of God? That was King Solomon’s request of God. That God would bless him with the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of how to be and act in accordance to His righteousness.
If that would be our desire, marriages would not end in divorce, children would not live in poverty or suffer abuse, and nations would prosper instead of being impoverished. Everyone would be recognized as being valuable and equal before men because God would be our standard, His Word would be our law, His love our motivation. Men and women would rule nations with a love for truth and integrity and the fear of God, instead of for the profitability of themselves and their ‘investors’.
What is true Righteousness?
True righteousness according to Jesus surpasses mere observance of law. Just because I obey the law and do not speed, or do not steal, or do not take a life does not make me righteous. Just because I tithe ten percent, or serve at my church or give to the poor does not make me righteous. I can do something, conform, out of fear of punishment or reprisal or threat, but it does not mean it is sincere or from the heart. I can do something with the motivation to make myself look good before the world and that is not righteousness; it’s manipulation, it may even be narcissism - a self-centered person who is excessively preoccupied with oneself and one's own needs, often at the expense of others. Jesus was the exact opposite of the narcissist; He came to give His life for the benefit of others!
True righteousness is not based on keeping law, but on conforming character to Christ. From one’s character conduct flows. A tree reveals it’s character by the fruit it produces. A child reveals their heart by their conduct. A culture and societies values are known by what it gives priority to (and it’s government).
True righteousness is not about obeying rules and regulations. This is what the Pharisees emphasized. Righteousness could be measured by how much you prayed, how much you gave, how much you served, how much you fasted. True righteousness is about pleasing God. It is about a love for God above all persons, place, or things.
Jesus actually sought to fulfill the law in every area of His life because He loved the Father and desired to please His Father. He went to synagogue not because He was lacking, but because it was the right thing to do and conformed to His Father’s will. What did Jesus say about gathering together? Do not neglect meeting together (as the church, as a small group, as fellow believers) why? So that you can be encouraged in your faith, in your walk, in your relationships. That you can be picked up. That you can receive instruction in the righteous ways of the LORD your God, for love and good works. To persevere!
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
Why did Jesus ultimately go to the cross and give his life up for His creation? Because He loved the Father, and sought to please Him by fulfilling His will. In doing so, Jesus fulfilled the Law, and bore the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13).
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
Because of Jesus love and thirst to conform to His Father’s will, we have been set free from sin and death! How great is that! Imagine if Jesus decided He was not going to conform to His Father’s will. You I would be stuck in sin and death with no hope of eternal life. No hope of being saved from the results of our poor choices and decisions. No hope of being forgiven for turning away from God. There would be no saving of the Prodigal Son, no race and mercy for the baby who passes or the child who knows no better.
There is no way that I will absolutely fulfill and keep every commandment of the LORD God. I will not live my life in 100! absolute conformity to the will of God at all times. Paul confirms this truth by stating , “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Jesus said himself that nobody is good except God alone (Mk 10:18). Solomon himself wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes that, “there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins” (Eccl. 7:20). The Apostle Paul’s word to the Romans is rather cutting,
as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
I do good, we all do good at times, a lot of the times, we are actually called to do good works by Christ Himself. What does Paul mean by the word good? Disposition. Is my disposition to goodness, kindness, usefulness, profitableness? Is my natural tendency and inclination, frame of mind to goodness, kindness, usefulness and/or profitability towards God and His will and standards? Is self-centered-ness and selfishness absent and dead in my being? If we are being honest …no, it never will be without living in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is the only way we can hope to fulfill any Law and avoid, put to death any character flaws …by yielding to God’s Spirit within me when I trusted in Christ. Up until that point it is me and religious observance. Can we admit with Paul that there is nothing good in me, in my flesh, but we do have the desire to do right, to live righteously but are unable to fully do so (Romans 7:18)? Why? Because we are broken people, who are tempted, who fall, who need to be supported, encouraged, and picked up. Who do not always live yielding to the Holy Spirit to work in our lives (Romans 8:1-4).
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
King Solomon was wise even before he was granted great wisdom and understanding by God because He was intent on one thing …pursuing the righteousness of God; conforming to the standards of God Himself and fulfilling God’s law to the best of His ability, with the wisdom and understanding of God to know good and evil and act good. Basically, his attitude was right, because His heart was conformed to God’s. Just as King David has a heart after God’s, Solomon was well on His way and then he fell.
He failed to obey God’s law and moved from relying on God, to relying on himself, to other gods. His allowed his heart to become divided, entertaining the “gods” of his many wives, Solomon’s failure to obey God’s law. His heart became corrupted, therefore his conduct became unbecoming, and he ended up being less of a King and servant of God that he could have been. All the wisdom, knowledge and understanding of God and the world is of no use unless one is yielded to conforming to the righteousness of God.
By continually yielding to the leading of the Spirit in our lives, we can and will conform to the righteousness of God. This is the Spirit’s role in our lives…to guide us into the holiness and righteousness of God. Imputing God’s righteousness into our lives; charging to our account the holiness of His Son’s sinlessness.
Live conformed to the righteousness of God. Live by His standards and be blessed as you do so.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
In Jesus’ name may we be blessed. Amen.
