Who are "the righteous" and who are "the wicked?"

Believers, did you know that it is only the path of the just (the righteous) that "is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day” - Proverbs 4:18? The path of the wicked grows darker (Proverbs 4:19). But who are these “the wicked?”

When we believers think of “the wicked,” we think armed robbers, assassins, child-molesters, thieving politicians, kidnappers, ritual killers, warmongers and so on. We certainly don’t think of ourselves as being in this deplorables' basket of “the wicked.” But who does our Lord God consider to be righteous and who does He see as wicked?

Just look at what our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 7:22-24 – “When the Judgment Day comes, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord! In your name we spoke God's message, by your name we drove out many demons and performed many miracles!’ Then I will say to them, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you wicked people!’”

Even bible-toting, demon-bashing, miracle-performing preachers that do these things in the name of Jesus can be among the wicked! Today, these people do not get their power from Christ but from their various fasts and weeks spent on mountains. These people point you to what you have to do to get right with God and receive from Him, never what Christ has done and how with Him, God gives us all things FREELY (Romans 8:32)!

No wonder for many Christians, verse 19 - path growing darker - is the case - things seem to be getting worse. Fear and anxiety seem to be mounting. In churches, there is a never-ending cycle of deliverance sessions (for believers!!!) and doing/giving to get from God, with little or temporary victories in-between, despite their doing all they can to be good, serve the Lord and live a holy life. There is no “free indeed” that Jesus spoke of in the equation. Life seems to be growing darker and not brighter.

What to do!!!

Believers, in our Lord God’s eyes, HOW we become righteous determines who is truly righteous and who is wicked. Romans 3:10 (Amplified Version) tells us “There is none righteous (none that meets God’s standards), not even one.”

Of ourselves, we cannot do anything to “earn points” on some leaderboard of righteousness. With God, there is no leaderboard of righteousness based on man's works. If you break just one law, you are guilty of all (James 2:10).

Isaiah 64:6 says “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.”

Even the “good” things we do (not sinning, helping others, evangelising) are considered filthy rags (used tampons in original Hebrew version) in God’s sight when they are done in order to “get right with God” or receive from Him. Notice that it is our righteousnesses (the good things we do and the bad we avoid doing) that are filthy rags, and not our sins.

God’s standard of righteousness is the law (which no man can keep), and the bible tells us clearly that no one is justified by the law in God’s sight in Galatians 3:11 - “11 Now it is clear that no one is justified [that is, declared free of the guilt of sin and its penalty, and placed in right standing] before God by the Law, for “THE RIGHTEOUS (the just, the upright) SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”

Verse 10 of the same chapter says that all who depend on what they do or do not do (law keeping) for their righteousness and salvation are under the curse. Doing your best to stop sinning or keeping the Ten Commandments or doing good (dead works) cannot make you righteous. But thanks to the preaching of a different gospel, many believers think this is how they can “maintain their salvation” or “get right with God” or “receive from God.”

No wonder the path of some Christians grow darker. They are under the curse (under the law) because they believe that it is their efforts at not sinning and their good works that makes them righteous before God! Anyone, (believer or not) who depends on these things for their righteousness (and not that which is freely given in Christ) is counted among the wicked in God’s sight!

Beloved of God, as His children under the New Covenant cut with our Heavenly Father on our behalf by our Saviour Jesus, we are no longer under law but under grace – God’s underserved, unmerited favour. Here, we have righteousness as a gift (Romans 5:17); not because of what we do or don’t do, but because Jesus took our place on the cross, according to 2 Corinthians 5:21-

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

This is the only Way to be righteous in God’s sight. And according to Romans 5:17, we reign in life when we receive of this gift - “…much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)

In the eyes of our Heavenly Father, the difference between the righteous and wicked is not what they do or do not do (by their efforts). It is how they believe that they are made righteous – either by faith (a free gift given by our Heavenly Father through our Saviour Jesus Christ) or through works/righteousness of self (human effort).

In Christ, we don't work to be righteous. We have righteousness as a gift. We are no longer condemned. And it is this gift of no condemnation that makes us go and sin no more; not more laws and threats of judgment from wicked preachers.

Like Joseph, who was under Grace and not under the Law and still saw sleeping with Potiphar's wife as a great wickedness/forgave his brothers who sold him into slavery/saved a whole country from recession, depend on our Lord for your righteousness and watch your path shine brighter unto the perfect day!

Believe Right and you will Live Right!