“Who is to say who is righteous and who is not? Who sets the standard? Is a Catholic more righteous than a Baptist? Are either of them righteous? Do you have the right to determine what’s in their hearts? Though you know them by their works, do you know their true feelings? If so, by what do you gauge the heart my Father designed? When did the clay gain the wisdom of its Creator? So who declares one to be righteous? If the One that is declaring His people righteous, is He not also the one that passes Righteous Judgment? By what authority do those that are imperfect pass judgment upon those they do not know? When all claim to be righteous in their own eyes like that of the Jews, do not all pass judgment upon one another? Where is the basis for which person is truly righteous?”
What is righteousness? It is conduct that Yahweh expects from those that practice the way of being upright. In the Word, Yahweh has given the guidelines for conducting ones self in a righteous manner. If you see someone acting contrary to those guidelines, you recognize them by the way they conduct themselves. That tells you they are not walking in the truth.
Long ago before Christ was crucified, he spoke of the self-righteous Jews to his disciples. Christ told them that if their righteousness did not abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, they would by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens. Christ told them that because those Jews had a form of righteousness in obedience to certain requirements of Father’s Law and to their added traditions.
“But they had made the word of Father invalid because of their traditions, and they rejected me, the way – yes “The Way” provided by my Father through whom they could have obtained real righteousness.”
Matthew 15:3-9 He answered them, “And why do you break God’s commandment because of your tradition? For God said: Honor your father and your mother; and, The one who speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death. But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift [committed to the temple]“— he does not have to honor his father.’ In this way, you have revoked God’s word because of your tradition. Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said: These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men.”
Matthew 5:17-20. “Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For I assure you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches [these commandments] will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Romans 10:4. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
