If we follow God and his righteousness what should we expect?

If We follow God and his righteousness what should we expect?

Being considered right in the eyes of God will become the very righteousness of his expectation from us.  In 2 Corinthians Paul explains it this way; “For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”   (2 Cor 5: 21).  Becoming one with God is to reach perfection and as a just person finding the very element of who God is.  

How we may ask, does one reach this ability to live according to the demand God seeks through our human behavior.  All fall short of the glory of God and without that we will never share in his blessings created for the just man’s belief.  

Let us for the moment think of how our education and our industrious activities become the ultimate achievement of the success we seem to enjoy.  The children can brag of their parents' rise to notoriety or their place of nobility in the community.  Or, the heights a minister has reached through their ability to write, speak about God, or send neophytes into the world through their instructions.  All of these are meritorious and they produce volumes of praise for those who wish to follow their example.  However, through all the works of the flesh we still will fall short of what God is looking for through us.  The most astute person who is far above all the others in human history, none has become like Christ who is the righteousness of God.  

“And the Lord said to Satan, Have you noticed my servant Job, and that there is no one on earth like him, blameless and upright, fearing God and avoiding evil.?”  Now we all know how the story continues and in the end because of Job’s untiring faith everything is restored back to this man of righteousness.  (cf Job 1: 8).   To be holy enough for this gift to become noticeable by God, one only needs to be humble and wait on God for approval.  

Never once did Jesus use his right of divinity to be a consequence towards his adversaries.  Most notably was the interrogation from Pilate, or the soldiers nailing him to the Cross, and  not even after the Resurrection did Christ pour out his Glory on his enemies.  He did what his Father sent him to accomplish and we are the result of this initiative.  

Righteousness is our destiny and it can only be obtained through grace and in spite of drawbacks, as with Job, we shall reach the goal that is reserved for those who persist to reach it.  Unfortunately there are many who give up and will not find this gift from God.  It will be too far for them to see or grasp it.  That is the expectation from God and woe to those who lose its appeal.   

Bury the attraction to fame, fortune, and notoriety.  Seek to become righteous in the eyes of God; saintly and beyond reproach as far as our soul is seeking for the recognition of the Holy Spirit who dwells within each of us.

Ralph B. Hathaway