What is Righteousness?

Would a person be considered pretentious if he or she claimed to be righteous? It is a word that describes a relationship with God. Some would say, I wouldn’t dare claim a relationship at all with God, for God is supreme and perfect and there can be no relationship with God. Another person might say, that is for God to decide, while someone else, who feels a close relationship with God would say, ‘without a doubt, I would describe myself as righteous.

Let us consider what righteousness is. It is definitely a quality to be credited to a person for how well he or she relates to God. One might say a righteous person is honest and avoids actions that would harm or exploit someone else. In the Bible, there are many who related well to God. There was Mary and there was Joseph, the one whose brothers sold him to some Egyptians. Also, there was Moses, and Paul for examples. The word divides the lost and the saved. In actuality, however, that definition is faulty because there is the question of how good a person must be to be righteous. The Pharisees said they prayed at least twice a week. Jesus, however, wasn’t impressed. Giving His life for the sake of being the sacrifice to God for the sins of all mankind, He was the only righteous person and He made it possible for anyone else to become righteous by accepting His sacrificial life as if it was that person’s own. Otherwise, it is impossible to know when a sufficient number of good deeds has been done to earn a relationship with God.

The only way to become righteous is by our trust in God. Righteousness is imputed or imparted to us. When our trust is in Jesus, perfect righteousness is imparted or credited to our account and it is a gift. Whether it is imputed or imparted, once a person has an implicit trust in God, he is made righteous. It requires believing that his or her sins have been forgiven by Christ’s sacrificial death and His resurrection.

There is a very good reason why I am mentioning this, for it is the relationship a piper must hold with God, for his or her music to be of significance when called upon to play for sacred engagements. This point was especially acknowledged by me one beautiful sunny, warm afternoon as I was playing at a funeral service in the cemetery. The family of the deceased person was gathered around the grave as the coffin was about to be lowered, and it was just after I had been looking into the clear blue sky, watching birds flying here and there, and I was thinking of God’s eternity as I played. I looked and caught the eye of a young lady who I think was the daughter of the deceased father. She nodded to me, indicating that the music was meaningful to her. I nodded back that I understood how the music touched one’s heart. I thought, I am actually the go-between person carrying her message of thanks to God, for the years she experienced her dad’s love. At the same time, I was carrying God’s love and His sympathy back to her and her family by my pipe music. I sensed that I had to be a clean vessel through which to carry that message.

I remember reading in the Bible that God isn’t inclined to listen to someone who doesn’t love Him. I located that Scripture recently, and it says, “But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you that He will not hear.” Isaiah 59: 2 So, God won’t even hear our playing if we don’t know Him. Why would He? 

I realize more than ever, that it would be presumptuous for a piper who did not know Christ, to accept engagements to play for any event that should require knowing God personally, for without that relationship, his or her music would not even be heard by God.