What is righteousness?
"All the prophets give witness about him. They say that all who believe in him have their sins forgiven through his name" (Acts 10:43).
"He has removed our lawless acts from us as far as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103:12).
"Brothers and sisters, we should always thank God for you. The Lord loves you. God chose you from the beginning. He wanted you to be saved. Salvation comes through the Holy Spirit’s work. He makes people holy. It also comes through believing the truth. He chose you to be saved by accepting the good news that we preach. And you will share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 2:13–15).
To be righteous means to be without sin.Righteous means "without sin." Only God is righteous on His own, but He declares us to be righteous too when we trust in Jesus as our Savior. When you’re righteous, you’re considered completely right and not guilty of anything that’s wrong (sin). Jesus took our punishment for sin on the cross, and we no longer need to be punished for them.
Even though we sin before we believe in Jesus, and even though we keep sinning afterward, Jesus’ death covers over every single sin. After we trust in Him, we should show that we truly do believe in Him by sinning less and by doing good works. These good works don’t save us from our sins—only our faith in Jesus saves us. But once we turn to Jesus in faith, God sees us as righteous forever.
To learn more about following Jesus, click here.
