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The Righteous One

In the history of mankind, and from all the men who have come and gone, by any account, of whom can it be said, he is the Righteous One? There has been only one man who has ever lived who is known as, and credited with being, the Righteous One.

John the apostle puts this in perspective. “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”[1] The significance of there being a Righteous One is revealed by the demonstration of the Glory of God before all creation[2] that is central to redemptive history.

In the revelation of the glory of God, the focus of redemptive history has been centered upon the burden of there being a Righteous One. The cry from heaven has been heard, “The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that does good, no, not one.”[3] The Apostle Paul concurred when he reminded the Roman believers the truth, “as it is written: 'None is righteous, no, not one.’”[4]

What this means, and how it affects individuals like you and me, reveals the means by which a person may be redeemed to God from the state of being unrighteous. But this revealing of the Righteous One works in two different directions. On the negative side, it is this truth where the hardness of a man’s heart is revealed in the fullest.[5] On the positive side, the fact that the Righteous One exists in the person of Jesus of Nazareth is the truth that a person[6] can be either excused or condemned.

In John’s Gospel, we see Jesus in the upper room on that last evening, comforting the disciples with the promise to send the Comforter, also called the Helper[7] or Advocate.[8] The primary function of the Helper, the spirit of truth, is to “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”[9] Of these three things, righteousness is the focus. What does it mean that the Helper, the Advocate, will convict the world of righteousness, and just how does this work? Jesus himself gives us the answer, “concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see (behold) me no longer.”[10]

Jesus taught his disciples that no man had ever seen God[11] at any time. The Apostle John passed this on in his first Epistle.[12] The statement that no man has ever seen God at any time did not stir a rebuttal from the disciples. When Jesus said it, nobody jumped up and countered with, but our father Abraham saw and spoke with God, or Moses saw and spoke with God on the mountain. The fact is no God-fearing Israelite was recorded to believe that a man could actually see and converse with the immutable Yahweh.[13]

Consider what must surely have been the amazement of the disciples when Jesus spoke these words to them in the upper room that last evening “because I go the Father.” But here, Jesus’ statement becomes utmost important when we understand that it was preceded with, “…concerning righteousness.” In other words, Jesus is going to the Father, whom no man has ever seen, because of Righteousness. Of all the attributes one can attribute to God, and there are many, Jesus could have said to his disciples that it was out of God’s love (for the Son) that he goes to the Father. But he does not and instead chose Righteousness, which the Advocate, the Helper convicts, the world. In other words, one of the primary functions of the Holy Spirit of God is to convict the world of Righteousness, with (perhaps) God’s love, at the least, in second place.

Much is made of the love of God for sinners preached from the pulpits of the Church. God certainly is a God of Love, as the Apostle John reminds us that God is love.[14] But God has demonstrated time and again that He is a Righteous God and that He desires His people to be righteous.[15]

 

You and I can no longer see Jesus, because he dwells in the realm of God. How was this possible? The only way this would be made possible is because he is the Righteous One. It is this truth which convicts the world of righteousness: that there is now a man, proven by his righteousness, who is standing, as Stephen saw him, [16] at the Right hand of God Almighty.  

On the positive side, because Jesus of Nazareth is standing in the presence of God as the Righteous One, there is now a mediator between God and man. A person need not carry his or her guilt to the grave in the condemnation of unbelief, because they can be excused through the one man who was faithful to God. The author of the Hebrew’s letter put this in perspective. “Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house.”[17]

 Simply stated, without the faith of Jesus, in God, there simply would be no redemption for any of us. From the point of view of the God of the Scriptures, there simply is “no other name under heaven given among men by whom we must be saved.”[18]

In this man and through this name, Jesus Christ of Nazareth,[19] it does not get any more personal.

 

Jesus of Nazareth is the savior of men because he is the Righteous One. He is righteous because he believed[20] and trusted[21] and was found obedient[22] to God, setting aside his will for that of God’s,[23] even to the point of death.[24] And because Jesus believed in the faithfulness of God, (the promise that God would raise him from the grip of death and the grave[25]) God has appointed him as our High Priest[26] who now mediates on behalf of God’s people.

A man becomes righteous before God, not because of his own faith, but through the faith of Jesus the Christ. The Apostle Paul clearly states how a man is made righteous before God. “And be found in him, (the Righteous One) 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:”[27] The NET version[28] expresses most clearly this truth, with the focus upon Christ Jesus, “and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ's faithfulness– a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ's faithfulness.”[29]

The saving of a man, any man, woman or child, is based solely upon Christ’s faithfulness to God. Jesus’ faithfulness to God is the means of salvation; that God instituted in redemptive history, which was absolutely necessary in order to demonstrate the Glory God in the revelation that a man could demonstrate complete faithfulness and obedience to God.[30] Jesus of Nazareth was that man. Jesus is the man who was “approved by God,”[31] as attested by the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost. And being so, Jesus was found worthy[32] to be the sacrificial Lamb who would take away the sin of the world.[33]

 Jesus learned (the)[34] obedience through the things which he suffered, and because he did so, with the result of, “being (was) made perfect(ed);[35] he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.”[36]

Jesus’ righteousness is the basis for our salvation and our coming to God though him. This is because our righteousness is as filthy rags, according to God,[37] and therefore it becomes imperative to have the righteousness of God “imputed”[38] to us through Jesus.

In the end, and at the bottom of it all, a man is not saved because he believes there is a God, for even the devils (demons) believe there is a God,[39] but because Jesus trusted, believed, and was obedient to God. A man is saved from sin and death because he believes God concerning His Christ.[40]

The faith to believe God concerning all that He has done through the Christ is a gift from God.[41] It is the gift of faith which enables His children, and grants to them the authority or the right[42] to come to God and receive the righteousness of God, based upon Christ’s faithfulness to God. If one is to be saved from sin, death, the grave,[43] and the deceitful and desperately wicked heart, then it must be through the one man whom God foreordained as the path or way to come to Him.[44] The purpose of redemptive history is ultimately to be culminated in the revealing of all the sons and daughters of God[45] who will share in the divine nature with “the Righteous One,” who is Jesus of Nazareth.

 

In the wisdom of God, there is only one advocate who mediates between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, the Righteous.[46] Why the man Christ Jesus is the advocate who mediates between God and men, is explained by the master theologian of the Church. From John’s lead, we turn to the Apostle Paul’s explanation of why Jesus of Nazareth is called the Righteous. “For if, because of one man's trespass, (the) death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of (the) righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.”[47]

The act of Righteousness of Jesus in effect returned what the one man stole in the trespass leading to the death. Through the Psalmist, the Righteous One calls out, “Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies, what I did not steal, I then have to restore.”[48] What exactly did the Righteous One have to restore? We begin to understand the Psalmist’s words when we remember the unrighteous act of Adam.

Adam, a created being, believed, in the deceitfulness of his heart that the fruit from the forbidden tree would make him wise like God. When Adam succumbed to the temptation of the fruit, in essence he said in his heart, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”[49] It’s unlikely, perhaps unimaginable, that Adam believed if he ate the fruit it would make him immutable.[50] What is more likely Adam believed, just as the promise of the fruit held, that it would make him wise like God, even holy and righteous. Adam was not created a righteous being. If Adam was to be “like the Most High,” who is altogether Holy and Righteous, than this likeness to God would have to be granted, conferred as a gift,[51] through God’s grace.[52] God does grant the gift of Righteousness[53] to all those who believe that Jesus’ “one act of righteousness” satisfied the justice of God,[54] resulting in justification of life.[55] This occurred when Jesus willingly laid down his life for the ungodly.[56]

The concept of Adam reaching out and grasping the forbidden was explained in the words of Paul, in his letter to the Philippians. Paul encouraged his readers, to “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” And what kind of a mind is that, Paul? It is the mind of the man (Paul continued without hesitation) “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.”[57]

Jesus understood better than any man, previous or since, that equality with God was not to be grasped, for this was the very transgression of Adam, when he reached out, believing he could steal what God desires to give in Christ Jesus. What God gives to us[58] through His Christ is the gift of righteousness, eternal life,[59] the right to be sons and daughters of God, who are, in the age to come, partakers of the divine nature.[60] It is the promise that we will be conformed to the image of Christ, who is the image of God, and promises nothing less than that we will be like Him.[61] In other words, to disobey God, as Adam did, in partaking of the knowledge of good and evil, is not the path to being like God. The serpent lied.[62]

The call to those who believe in God is to emulate Jesus. The Apostle Paul stated, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”[63] To be like God is found in “the mind of Christ,” the man who lived and gave his life believing that equality with God was inherent in the promise of God.[64]

The promise was foreshadowed in the proleptic words of the Psalmist, as the Christ called out a thousand years before he came into the world, “I will say to the LORD, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'”[65] And then comes Yahweh’s response, "Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation."[66]

 

 

In conclusion, what each of us needs is to see Jesus.[67] It is critical to see him as the Righteous One, who, as the last Adam,[68] was the one man who trusted in God, and, through his obedience to the will of God, fully understood that equality with God was not a thing to be grasped.[69] Today, as believers in God, we see Jesus, the man who tasted death for all men,[70] as the man who hoped and trusted in God[71] and by doing so was crowned (rewarded) with glory and honor.[72]

Jesus of Nazareth is the one who, through patience, endured the path[73] set before him by God,[74] and succeeded.[75] The path is described in the profound question the Psalmist asked long ago, and the Hebrew author reiterated, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?”[76]

The answer lies in Jesus. Because of his faithfulness to God, because he trusted and held fast his love for the God who was his refuge and fortress,[77] the LORD remembered him in death and rescued him from the grave.[78] The Psalmist, revealed in the proleptic language of the scriptures,[79] saw this, and prophesied the end result of the Righteous One being rewarded with what God desired to give to the man He created in His likeness and image.[80] In the end, the question of the Psalmist has been answered in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.[81]

Through the words of the Psalmist, we perceive the love of God is the answer as to why He cares for man. Through His love, God gave us a son,[82] the servant whom He appointed and anointed as the Lamb who would take away the sin of the world. In the profoundest of ways, the act of righteousness by the one man Jesus the Christ, is the underpinning of redemptive history. “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”[83] Through this act of righteousness, Jesus has been given a name above all others,[84] for “God has made him both Lord and Christ.”[85]

Today, Jesus sits at the Right Hand in the glory of the Father's throne.[86] He does so as the resurrected Son of Man,[87] the man who has been given all authority and power,[88] the Righteous One, whom God has appointed as the man to judge the world in Righteousness.[89]

 

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