Who Are the Righteous?

Who Are the Righteous?

“If it is difficult for the righteous person to be saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

In the religious world the idea that it is difficult for a righteous person to be saved is a foreign concept. They would probably say, “A righteous person is saved, isn’t he?” And the fact that it is difficult for him to be saved is just as foreign to them. So who is a righteous person?

“For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’” Rom. 4:3. On the basis of this and similar scriptures, the religious world speaks about an “imputed” righteousness. By doing this they have changed this scripture, annulled the promises, and led people astray.

God promised Abraham that he would receive a son that would come from his own life. Gen. 15:4-6. He did not receive the promise of an imputed son, but of a son who would come from his own life. Abraham prayed that Ishmael might be reckoned as the son of promise, but God said, “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son . . . .” Ch. 17:18-19. “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Abraham would have made God out to be a liar if he had not believed. That would not have been righteous, but ungodly. Now Abraham believed that God was true. It was righteous of Abraham to believe it. It was accounted to him for righteousness, and it really was righteous.

Abraham did not believe in himself and his own ability, but rather in God’s work in him and in Sarah. Therefore he did not grow weak in faith when he considered that their own bodies were already dead, for it was God alone who was to receive the glory for the son of promise, the son that was to come from their own lives. Rom. 4:19-21. We also read, “By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.” Heb. 11:11. As we can see, God gave Sarah strength to lay the foundation for a new generation. This was not something that was imputed. This was reality. The son came from their own lives.

In the New Testament we have exceedingly great promises, that through them we may be partakers of divine nature. 2 Pet. 1:4. We can ask this question: Who is a believer? Who is a righteous person? “No,” they say in the religious world, “that is something that is imputed to us for Jesus’ sake. He fulfilled the law in our place.” Where is it written that He did that in our place? Paul says that God did this work in the Son “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Rom. 8:3-4.

This is not something that is to be imputed to us. It is a life in the Spirit that shall be realized in us now while we are living in the flesh. Gal. 2:20. Are you a believer? Then you are also among the righteous. Extremely few people are among the righteous. The others do not believe in the promise of partaking of divine nature. The New Testament promises are of no value to them because of their unbelief. They believe in the forgiveness of sins, as they also did in the Old Testament. They say we shall receive divine nature when we get to heaven. Peter says we shall receive it now if we escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.

“If it is difficult for the righteous person to be saved . . . .” A righteous person is someone who believes the exceedingly great promises which God has given us, the person who considers God to be true. What does it mean that they are being saved? It means that they obtain the promise! Jesus says that the way that leads to life is narrow. Abraham certainly experienced that. He and Sarah had to go the way of death with their own strength so that God’s strength might be made perfect in their weakness. 2 Cor. 12:9.

The way of faith is narrow, and God alone receives the glory on this way. Peter says, “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.” 1 Pet. 2:24. This will then be a righteousness that proceeds from our own life.

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ . . . .” Abraham would not have had peace with God if he hadn’t believed God. “Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Since Abraham and Sarah believed, they also gained access to the grace of establishing a new generation, and it was evident that that was sufficient. The promise was realized. This is what God said to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you.” Therefore he could write further that he gloried not only in hope of the glory of God, “but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces patience . . . .” Rom. 5:1-3. We see that faith is full assurance. He believed in an overcoming life and not in an imputed righteousness. He believed in real patience that would come from his own life in his tribulations. By faith he had become one of the righteous ones, having gained access to the grace that God’s strength is made perfect through “patience,”—divine nature, an overcoming life—when he was in tribulations. This was not something that was imputed to him; it was a life that was manifested through Paul’s body. 2 Cor. 4:10-11.

From the above we see that the righteous person, he who believes the promise, is the one who considers God true. We also see that obtaining the promises—being saved—is a narrow way. It means that we have to die to our own strength, and the apostle exhorts us to follow those who through faith and patience obtain the promises. Heb. 6:12. We also see that they did not believe in vain. “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” 2 Cor. 2:14.