Righteousness follows Redemption, Worship follows Righteousness

Quote: “Redemption is prior to righteousness. You cannot be righteous until you are first redeemed. Redemption, righteousness – you cannot worship until you are redeemed and righteous. That is the chronology, that is the logic of it all. Redemption, righteousness and worship.” – Ravi Zacharias.***   Redemption – ‘deliverance by sacrifice.’ Of all the religious books, the Bible is the only one that reveals to us the true nature of ourselves; we were born in bondage to sin. What is sin? Primarily it is self-will. So powerful is the bondage within, it can only be broken by God’s power, God’s grace and the blood of Jesus Christ.

Without redemption we remain God’s creations; with redemption we become God’s children. In essence, that is what separates Bible Christians from the rest of the world’s religious people. Are we better than them? No, we are different than them. God’s power: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes …… Romans 1:16. God’s grace: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness …… Romans 3:23-25. Christ’s blood: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins…… Ephesians 1:7.

Glorious biblical benefits of redemption: Forgiveness – as the Scripture above says, Jesus Christ paid the redemption price with His blood, that all our sins might be cancelled – taken away. In addition, taken with them is the power, the guilt, the infection, the influence and the consequences of sin. Justification – “is the free and undeserved act of God, by which he reckons a sinner, through faith, the righteousness of Christ, declaring the sinner just and upright before Him.” – Derek Prime. Adoption – redeemed people are adopted by God. He is our Father and we are His children John 1:12.  We owe no more allegiance to our old masters of self-will and sin, but rather, we now owe total allegiance to God; all that we are and possess now belongs to Him.

Righteousness – ‘to be upright before God.’ There is none righteous, no, not one….. There is none who does good, no, not one Romans 3:10-12. People intrinsically know this to be true of themselves; that’s what motivates them to get involved in religious activities of some kind and or community service of some kind. They may or may not be familiar with God’s 10 Commandments as written but they know there is a higher law for them to live according to because God has written that same law within them.They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them Romans 2:15. “There’s no such thing as right and wrong!” protests the relativist … as he locks his doors securely at night!!

Notice the above Scripture does not say, “There is none good, no, not one.” Yet, in religious circles, most people think in terms of goodness, never righteousness. Ask them if they think heaven or hell awaits them at death and they’ll tell you heaven. Ask them why, and they’ll tell you they’ve done more good in life than bad. It’s as though they imagine themselves standing before God giving an account of how they lived, and God, with His set of scales, drops the good into one tray and the bad into the other. There’s no question in their mind as to which way the scales will tip! What will their good consist of? Regular church, synagogue, mosque or temple attendance, faithful giving of money and time to all sorts of causes – all of it by far outweighing anything bad or selfish.

Perhaps non-Christians could be excused for thinking in terms of goodness rather than righteousness because their books don’t speak of it; the Bible is the only book that does. But there’s no excuse for Christians, especially leaders. Yet, rarely these days do we hear them speak of righteousness. It seems they’ve been deluded by Romanist popes, who, in recent decades have said, “If you live a good life you’ll go to heaven.” Never mind that this totally contradicts the word of God! “But popes are Vicars of Christ,” people say. Jesus doesn’t say it. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God Romans 10:2-3. 

Righteousness without redemption then, is self-righteousness and self-righteousness is idolatry and idolatry is lawlessness; it violates God’s 2nd Commandment Exodus 20: 4-5. Lawlessness is repugnant in the eyes of Christ. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness….. Hebrews 1:9. That’s what makes the worship of most unredeemed people repugnant in the Lord’s eyes. These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me Matthew 15:8. True worship to God calls for a union of the heart always, not the head. It’s the heart of a person that loves God, expresses faith in God and reverences Him. The primary reason most people are riddled with fear today is because they have no fear of God. 

The bad news: true righteousness is impossible for anyone to attain on their own. God’s required standard is simply too high. The good news: true righteousness is possible for everyone through the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God 2 Corinthians 5:21. Quote: “This is an amazing truth. On the cross, Jesus exchanged our sin for His perfect righteousness so that we can one day stand before God and He will see not our sin, only the holy righteousness of the Lord Jesus.” – Derek Prince. That’s right! Although He was perfectly sinless, holy and pure, on the cross, Jesus was treated as though He was a defiled, depraved sinner, and we are treated as though we are righteous and sinless.

Recently I read of a Christian worship leader from a well-known and popular world-wide church who is considering walking away from the faith. The report states he, “wants to know only the truth and that Christianity had become like another religion at this point.” He says, “I want genuine truth. Not the ‘I just believe it’ kind of truth. Science keeps piercing the truth of every religion.” I know nothing about the man or his circumstances, but if I was given an opportunity to speak with him, redemption and righteousness would be the topic of discussion, in that order. No science can pierce the truth of these; it has no explanation for them, therefore no answers for them. People with the experience of redemption and righteousness don’t question such; they question all that doesn’t line up with them!

I know nothing about the man’s worship-leading ministry either, but if it is not the product of redemption and righteousness, in that order, it is worship-leading dishonorable to God. Such a ministry is not Spirit-given, it’s either self-given or man-given. The latter are very common in churches world-wide, both large and small. People walk into churches with a natural gift of singing or music and nobody questions whether they are redeemed and righteous, they just put them behind the microphone or musical instrument without any spiritual testing and away they go. Natural gifts must become spiritual gifts. In other words, they must be laid down before God and stay there until He allows them to be picked up. It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing John 6:63.  

Blessings for recipients of redemption and righteousness: Our prayers are heard by God and acted upon in His time. The LORD is far from the wicked (guilty, ungodly, immoral), but He hears the prayer of the righteous Proverbs 15:29.  We are safely guarded by God until our time on earth is finished. The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe Proverbs 18:10.  We fear no man but the Man Jesus. The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion Proverbs 28:1.  We will forever be rewarded by God when this current age comes to a close, Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Matthew 13:43. Science cannot pierce the truth to any of this!  

Righteousness follows redemption, worship follows righteousness. That’s the divine order. When churches fail to function according to divine order they function in human disorder! Human disorder explains why the gospel of Jesus Christ is increasingly compromised, humanized and bastardized today! Preachers in pulpits and people in pews are bowing to the pressures of the Christ-hating world instead of bowing to the Lord of redemption and righteousness. Those doing this would be wise to wake up and turn that around. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven Matthew 5:20. Jesus said that, and He means it. Heed His word, not the word of the world. But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled 1 Peter 3:14.

[*** Based on what has been reported since the passing of Ravi Zacharias, it would appear he did not live up to the high standard of his statement. Nevertheless, the statement is true. Hypocrisy and sexual immorality are sins forgivable if sincerely repented from. If the reports are accurate, one can only hope he did that before he died.]