Happiness comes in wanting righteousness.
We read these wonderful words in Matthew 5:6:
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
Notice what this passage does NOT say. It does not say, blessed is the man who IS righteous. That is the way that the Pharisees would have worded it. The Pharisees taught that it would make you happy to BE righteous. Their entire religious system was centered around becoming righteous by doing good works and abstaining from bad works.
But Jesus didn’t say that. He said, “Happy is the man who hungers and thirsts for the righteousness that he doesn’t have.” It is only the one who realizes that his own righteousness is lacking who has reckoned to him the righteousness of another.
This is the doctrine of justification. It can be summed up in three points.
(1) God is righteous.
(2) God demands righteousness.
(3) God freely provides in Christ what He demands.
If you have come in faith to Jesus, trusting Him alone as your Lord and as your Savior, then something wonderful has taken place.
Your sins were credited to Jesus upon the cross. He was judged as a guilty sinner. This does not mean that He began to sin, but rather He was credited with your sins. God looked upon Him and judged Him in your place.
But that is not all. That is only the beginning of justification. The other part is that the righteousness of Jesus was credited to you. That does not mean that you actually became righteous any more than that He became a sinner. But you have been reckoned with and credited with the very righteousness of Jesus. God looks upon you and judges you as though you had the very character of Christ.
And on the basis of that judgment, God makes a declaration about you. He says, “You are hereby RIGHTEOUS” and that’s real happiness.
Pastor Ralph