Uniquely Righteous

How do we know that there is truth beyond our opinion? How do we move to mediate and discern between what is right and what is wrong? These questions may appear trivial but remain central to the cultural understanding of who we are as people and individual members of the broader scope in society. Who or what is the standard for what is good or bad; true or false?

As we establish the understanding that God is holy, and that there is no being higher than He, then we see a systematic thought process beginning to take shape. If God is the summation of perfection at the highest level, then logic would follow that God is also the highest moral agent and dispenser of truth. By the same token, if God is holy, and if God is the uttermost highest moral agent, then it follows that God is also the judge of what is ultimately good and ultimately evil. The Bible calls this Righteousness.

Righteousness is more than being right or good, primarily when referring to the LORD God. Righteousness used as God's character marks his dispensing of justice and right verdicts that effect creation. Therefore, God is the source of perfect truth, goodness, grace, mercy, and wrath (i.e., Divine Justice). Moses records a song of praise that highlights God's character as a Righteous being, whose perfection resounds in all creation.

“Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak; And let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As the droplets on the fresh grass and the showers on the herb. For I proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.” (Deuteronomy 32:1-4, NASB)

God is uniquely praised. Not only are the Hebrew people called to heed the words of the Prophet, who led them through the exodus and the wandering in the wilderness of Sin. God is declared to all creation as a perfect craftsman (creator), A just God (King over all creation), Unchanging (faithful and without injustice), and as upright (the ultimate authority for morality and truth). Here is the unique factor of the Living, Holy, and Righteous God. What do these have to do with Christians today?

1. There is no other god, or gods, like the LORD God. The God who discloses Himself to Moses and the Hebrew nation declares to those whom he calls, his unique character. There is none other like God, who is powerful to create, uphold, and provide ultimate truth and goodness.

2. God’s Righteousness pervades all creation and the logic of all humanity. The reality of humanity being created in God's image, as the Christian faith proclaims, provides the explanation for the innate awareness of something larger than self and what is observed in the universe as Paul writes to the Romans regarding all creation declaring the glory of God.

3. God is recognized as the ultimate King, Judge, and Source of Truth. Moses presents God as faithful, without injustice; The source of truth and rightness, who is also perfect. The very God who calls individuals to make them part of a covenant relationship; the same God who cares for the wellbeing of the people He calls to be His own; the same God who executes justice with love and mercy with truth and uprightness, is the same God who stands as the standard for what is right and moral.

Because God is the ultimate source of Justice, Love, Mercy, Grace, Morality, and Truth, there is hope for the Christian follower whose desire is to lead a life in freedom. If God is perfect in all truth and morality; if He is relational in his engagement with humanity, and if that God is calling out to us, then the same living God who is perfect will guide His own to seek the pure perfection He is as a way of perfection by Faith, through grace. Let us rejoice that God is uniquely righteous and perfect.