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

Short answer: Remember Joseph's words in Genesis 39:9 when when Potiphar's wife wanted a piece of him and he resisted: “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

“The wicked people” anywhere are people who have sinned, be it by doing great wickedness or minimal wickedness. Sin does have degrees of greatness. In John 19:11, Christ said to Pilate "...Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

God's word says “all have sinned…” so by default, no one on earth is excluded from the dragnet of “the wicked.” It encompasses all who have sinned and that's everyone. We were all destined for hell. Because God loved us so, “…He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21.

All who have Christ as their righteousness get to escape being counted among the wicked and not because we did anything to deserve it. This is grace- undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour.

Really long answer: In God's eyes, the difference between the righteous and the wicked is not defined by what we do or do not do by human effort. Believing Romans5:19 is what makes the difference between the righteous and the wicked:

“By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.”

All who depend wholly on Christ as their righteousness, forsaking theirs from works of the law, get to escape this dragnet of “the wicked,” and not because we obeyed the law or did good things. See Romans 3:

26 “…and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.”

The difference between the righteous and the wicked is how we believe that we are made righteous, either by works of the law or by grace through faith. When your believing is right, right living will follow. But many who profess Christ put the cart before the horse.

Romans 5:17 shows us how to live in triumph over sin and escape being counted among the wicked that will perish in the second death:

"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

Death here covers all earthly ills….up to the second death in hell. Living in triumph over sin and death are fruits of receiving God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness. Receiving these gifts without living right is as impossible as jumping into the sea naked without getting wet. You don't have to try to get wet in the sea. Christ transforms us to live right.

Many who profess Christ are trying to live in triumph over sin and death by human effort at obeying the law and doing good things, believing that these things are what make them “not wicked" and heaven-bound. Sin has dominion over such. Wickedness abounds,“For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace.” Romans 6:14.

“All have sinned” puts all mankind in the boat of wickedness/unrighteousness by default. Even we who have Christ as our righteousness sin from time to time but we can never be a part of the wicked because we did nothing to earn our righteousness. It is a gift. We are being transformed by His Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18.) Remember “There is none righteous…” With Christ as our righteousness, our path grows brighter and brighter like the morning sun…. but the path of the wicked (those who are trying to obey the law to get right with God) is like darkness. Proverbs 4:18–19:

“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,

That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.

19 The way of the wicked is like darkness;

They do not know over what they stumble.”

The righteous in the verse above does not refer to those who are doing their best to obey the law. Romans 3:20 tells us this is an effort in futility, “For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands…” The righteous here are those who are made righteous by Christ's obedience and not their puny efforts at obeying the law. All have sinned. The wicked are those among the all that have sinned who reject God's gift of righteousness to us in Christ for their own righteousness that proceeds from human effort at obeying the law. Such see their salvation as a reward for their own obedience and good deeds and so can boast about their works. This is not in line with believers’ lives as we see in Ephesians 2:

8 “God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”

In Christ, good works are EVIDENCES of our being born-again, not CONDITIONS. Imagine a child boasting that he has green eyes when both his parents have green eyes. He did nothing to get green eyes. But many who profess Christ see works as conditions, tell you that God will punish you for not having green eyes and put their works forward as why they should be accepted. See Christ's word in Matthew 7:

"22 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!’ 23 Then I will say to them, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you wicked people!’

Even bible-toting, demon-binding, miracle-performing leaders and churchgoers who do their best to be obedient and live moral lives as best as they can can be among the wicked. Let’s dig a little deeper. The bible tells us in Romans 5:19 -

"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, much more by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."

From the above verse, we see that committing acts of sin is not what makes people sinners. Adam's sin made the whole human race sinners long before anyone had the chance to commit an act of sin. Wicked. What’s more, this cloak of wickedness that Adam passed on to all of his descendants cannot be shed by trying to obey the law, “For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.” Romans 3:20. Nobody can become righteous by their own doing. See Paul's conclusion in Romans 3:

“9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written:

‘There is no one righteous, not even one;

11 there is no one who understands;

 there is no one who seeks God.

12 All have turned away,

 they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

 not even one.’

13 ‘Their throats are open graves;

 their tongues practise deceit.’

‘The poison of vipers is on their lips.’

14 ‘Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’

15 ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16 ruin and misery mark their ways,

17 and the way of peace they do not know.’

18 ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’”

This is the default mode of everyone born on earth; wickedness doesn't get any more wicked than this description in italics above. We might look at ourselves and think “Surely I am not like these wicked people" or “I am a good Christian and could never do that," but Peter's three-time denial of Christ shows us that given the right circumstances, the one who swore to himself that he would never steal or murder will do so profusely. The arm of flesh will fail. Thanks to the sin nature inherited from Adam, the potential to steal is in everybody. The flesh in a pastor is the same flesh in a paedophile and given the right temptation, trial or testing, all who depend on human effort will fail.

God sees that potential and how favourable circumstances can make some people boast in their non-existent power over sin and even look down on others who have fallen inside a pit as being greatly wicked. We see only outward actions but the reason that we are not committing particular sins is because we have not been tempted beyond what we can bear in those areas. If a big enough trial came our way and it was up to us to save ourselves, the best of us will fail woefully.

Committing acts of sin, alongside sickness, stress, depression, lack, oppression, etc are fruits of the old nature (sin nature) that was inherited from Adam. Everyone who is trying to obey the law in order to get right with God or make it to heaven has this old nature aka default mode of wickedness. Such do not believe that Christ's obedience has made them righteous and saved and so are still working to earn right-standing with God. But the work here is like a menstrual rag in God's sight according to Isaiah 64:6.

Since "…the strength of sin is the law" (1 Cor. 15:56,) those who are trying to keep the law in order to be righteous only strengthen the grip of sin over their lives. As long as this old nature is intact, sin will multiply. The more people with this old nature try to keep the law, the more they do wickedness. See Romans 7:5:

"When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death."

Christ died to rid us of this inherited sin nature: "When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature." Colossians 2:11.

In Christ, the sin nature inherited from Adam is no more in all who confess Him as Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead. According to Romans 4:25, His ressurection is the divine proof that we have been made righteous-

"Jesus was handed over to be crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and was raised back to life to prove that He had made us right with God."

In Him, we are a new creation. With Christ as our righteousness (and not our own filthy rags righteousnesses from obeying the Ten Commandments in order to be right with God) the old nature that produces sin is cut away. And this is the result of our being married to Christ and having Him as our righteousness:

"So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the One who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God."

Try to obey the law to get right with God and sin will multiply. Wickedness increases. Believe and receive that free gift of righteousness which comes from the obedience of Christ and you will not continue to live in sin. This is the logic of heaven but it is illogical to many, "For the message of the cross is foolishness [absurd and illogical] to those who are perishing and spiritually dead [because they reject it], but to us who are being saved [by God’s grace] it is [the manifestation of] the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18.

Reigning over sin, addiction, sickness, stress and all earthly ills are fruits of the new nature that we have in Christ as it is written in Romans 5:17 -

"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

Christ performed a perfect work in cleansing us of all our wickedness and giving us His own righteousness as a gift. Anyone who is without this gift of righteousness in Christ is "the wicked," even if they do their best to keep the law and do righteous things.

In Christ, we are made righteous apart from our works. In Him, God sees us as righteous 100%. He sees us as Christ is (righteous,) EVEN WHEN WE SIN, which we all do from time to time; but we do not continue to live in sin. Why? Because with His gift of righteousness comes no condemnation; His "Neither do I condemn you" makes us "go and sin no more." In Christ, under grace- undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour- you will not continue to live in sin. Sin will lose its dominion over you, "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under Law but under Grace."