THE MEANING OF BEING
RIGHTEOUS
By Clinton White
A Christian man had a question for me that had to
do with righteousness. He said, "I can see by several scriptures that answered
prayer seems to hinge on righteousness. The Bible says, "The effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (Jam.5:16). I think this is
why I’m not able to see more of my prayers answered. I try, but I don’t think
I’m righteous enough. I’m a born again Christian, I know Jesus as my Savior; but
it seems that there are so many things inside myself to work out before I can
qualify as righteous. How did all the people of faith that we read about in the
Bible get their prayers answered? How did they reach such a level of
righteousness? I get so frustrated and confused, I feel like giving up. It seems
the more I try the more I see inside myself that is not righteous. It looks as
though I’ll never be able to pray effectively for other people because I’m so
far away from being righteous. Can you help me with some counsel from the Bible?
I want to be able to pray effectively."
There are so many Christians who have this problem.
But before I answer, I want to make it very clear that I am speaking only to
those who are in Christ, who have been born again by the Spirit of
God.
The man who asked for help is correct.
Righteousness is a requirement for effectiveness in prayer. The Bible says in
Psalm 34, verse 17, "The righteous cry and the Lord heareth, and delivereth
them out of all their troubles." Psalm 92:12 says, "The righteous shall
flourish like the palm tree"; and Proverbs 11:30 says, "The fruit of the
righteous is a tree of life." We know that the Bible tells us to do all
things for the glory of God, and Jesus told us how to bring glory to God. He
said, "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit" (Jn.15:8).
And those verses I quoted previously from Psalms and Proverbs tell us that it is
the righteous who shall flourish and be fruitful as the palm tree or the tree of
life.
We Christians seek guidance. We want to know that
we are led of God, to be sure that we are in God’s will, in a place that He has
prepared for us; and the Bible says, "The steps of a good man
are ordered by the Lord" (Ps.37:23). So here we see that guidance is
also dependent upon righteousness.
We pray for our sons and daughters. We want them
delivered from sin and the darkness of this present world; we want them saved
and headed for eternal life. And the Bible says in Proverbs 11:21, "The seed
of the righteous shall be delivered." So answered prayer for our children is
dependent upon righteousness.
We want our souls fed. Jesus said, "Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God" (Matt.4:4). We want to hear God’s word and feed on it so that our souls
will not be famished and so that we’ll have the abundant life which God has
promised. And the Bible says, "The Lord will not suffer (permit) the
soul of the righteous to famish" (Prov.10:3). So you see, even revelation,
which is absolutely essential to a vital spiritual life, is dependent upon
righteousness.
So guidance, fruitfulness, abundance, insight and
answered prayer, all these things are reliant upon righteousness.
But there is a scripture verse, a truth found in
several places in the Bible, which says something that seems to place all of
these things completely out of our reach. It is, "There is none righteous,
no, not one" (Rom.3:10). Think about that. Every gift of God, every promise
He has made, can only be claimed by a righteous person; but yet the Bible says
there is none righteous, no, not one! Then how can we possibly pray with effect?
How can anyone pray with power? If only a righteous person can avail in prayer,
and there is none righteous, why should anyone pray? What chance do we have?
What hope is there?
Also, the Bible says in Psalm 66:68, "If I
regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Then how in the
world can we make our voices heard in heaven?
When I first started preaching, I used to tell
people that they had to perfect themselves before they could ever expect an
answer to prayer. I quoted those verses, "If I regard iniquity in my heart,
the Lord will not hear me"; and, "The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much." But I could see that all was not just right in
my own heart. How could I demand something of others that I had not attained to
myself?
A severe spiritual conflict began to smolder in my
heart. I saw some things inside myself that placed me very much outside the
definition of righteousness. I tried, but the harder I tried the more intense
the sense of sin burned into my consciousness. I want to tell you honestly that
I was very angry with God. I resented the confusion that had made its way into
my heart, and I thought that God was unjust. I did not admit these thoughts even
to myself, but there is no doubt about it, I was very resentful toward God. I
wanted to pray with power, I wanted His best; but I just couldn’t seem to get
anywhere in prayer.
Those three scripture verses tormented me: "The
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much"; "There is
none righteous, no, not one"; and "If I regard iniquity in my heart the
Lord will not hear me." I thought, How can God expect me to be righteous if
He said there isn’t any such thing as a righteous man? How can He say He hears
and answers prayer and then say we are all unrighteous and have iniquity. Then
He says if we have iniquity He won’t hear us! I tell you, Job’s wife was
standing right by my ear saying, "Curse God and die!" I would not be
honest with you if I didn’t tell you that I wanted to shout right into heaven,
"What is this, a bunch of riddles?" And then turn on my heel and walk away from
it all.
But God is so good! So merciful! He came to me in
such a tender way. He moved upon my heart with His Spirit and He opened my eyes.
I was fretting over my total lack of righteousness and resenting God’s demand
for it when He spoke to my heart. He said, "You are a righteous man." Instantly
my mind turned to everything inside of me that I knew very well was not
righteous. But the word came again, "You are a righteous man." My mind protested
again, "But God, I have such potential for sin. I'm weak, sometimes I get angry
inside, I say things I’m sorry about." And on I went. "I do this, and this, and
this and I told God all about my evil; but the only answer I received was, "You
are a righteous man." I thought, But I’ve failed God, I’ve sinned against Him,
I’m so carnal"; and again these thoughts were interrupted, "You are a righteous
man."
Then, like a flash, I saw it all. It was a
wonderful illumination that I will never forget. The proof of the following
words lighted up my whole life, turned around my thinking, and brought so many
things into focus. God says in Isaiah 54:17, "This is the heritage of the
servants of the Lord. Their righteous is of me, saith the
Lord."
I had been struggling and straining to make myself
righteous, but all I succeeded in doing was creating a greater sense of
unrighteousness. God the Father showed me that I was, at that moment, righteous
in Christ! This righteousness occurred when I accepted Christ as my Savior. That
is when He put on me the robe of righteousness, when I was born of the Spirit of
God into the kingdom of God, which the Bible says is righteousness, peace and
joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom.14:17).
Now I saw that answered prayer hinges upon
righteousness, and I was righteous already, in God’s sight, because I was in
Christ. I had been listening to carnal counsel like Job whose friends spoke from
a human standpoint, pointing out all his faults, giving him all the reasons for
his troubles, saying that it was because he was unrighteous. But God in heaven
was saying that Job was "a perfect and an upright man" (Job
2:3).
God looks upon His children on this earth and He
sees them as perfected and righteous, because He has placed them in Christ; and
He wants us to walk in the light of His opinion of us. He wants us to realize
what we inherited in Christ, and this inheritance is righteousness. The Bible
says concerning Jesus, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: a scepter of
righteousness is the scepter thy kingdom" (Heb.1:8). Christ has the
authority to give righteousness to people. Carnal mind says, "You are not
righteous"; but God says, "You are righteous in My Son." Do not regard carnal
mind for he does not understand the ways of God.
I quoted before, "If I regard iniquity in my
heart, the Lord will not hear me," but this doesn’t say, "If I have iniquity
in my heart, He won’t hear me; if I have the potential of iniquity in my heart,
He won’t hear me." I used to preach it as if it said that, but why did I have
the right to twist that word around? I didn’t. It says, If I regard iniquity in
my heart, He will not hear me.
Your carnal mind points out the potential of
iniquity in your being, and Satan, the accuser of the brethren, points it out,
too, showing you the places in the human heart which are very far short of
righteousness. But you can disregard this message to you—ignore it. Do not
regard it. The word "regard" means, "to take account of." Stop taking account of
your iniquity. Start taking account of what Jesus did for you on the cross. He
made you a righteous one. Open the eyes of your realization and see that Jesus
made you righteous in God’s sight. Open your mouth and thank God for this.
Praise Him for making you righteous in His sight. Stop telling Him how weak you
are, how evil you are, how poor and pitiful you are. Stop telling Him how
unrighteous you are. Stop believing everything your carnal mind says about your
spiritual condition, and stop believing everything that Satan says about your
spiritual condition; and start believing what God says you are.
Paul the apostle said, "But by the grace of God,
I am what I am" (1 Cor.15:10); and the grace of God says that you are
righteous. Now you can come to the throne of grace boldly (Heb.4:16). You can
pray and believe boldly. Stop struggling to create human righteousness, and rest
assured in the righteousness of Christ. As you realize His righteousness, your
whole life will take on a different light. You will stop being preoccupied with
your human nature and get untangled from yourself. You will come out of
yourself. And you will be effective in prayer.