Jesus Christ Is God’s Standard for Righteousness

Yesterday we saw that everything deviated just a little bit of God’s standard for righteousness, is sin. But what is God’s standard of righteousness? The answer is given in the second part of the verse we have already quoted from Paul’s speech at Athens.

“...because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31)

What is God’s standard of righteousness, here stated? It is not a moral code or a golden rule; it is not even the Ten Commandments. It is the one kind of standard perfectly suited to the human race. It is a man – that man whom God has ordained.

Who is this man? It is the man to whom God has given testimony or assurance by raising him from the dead. It is the Man Jesus Christ. He alone is God’s standard of righteousness for the human race. To understand this standard, we must study the life and character of Jesus as portrayed in the New Testament. Every aspect of human character or conduct that falls below the standard of Jesus falls below God’s standard of righteousness.

Paul presents the same truth concerning the nature of righteousness and sin, as found in Romans 3:23.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Paul does not specify any one particular type of sin. He does not specify pride or lust or murder or lies. There is only one point in which he asserts that all are alike guilty: All have come short of the glory of God; all have failed to live for God’s glory; all have failed to live up to the divine standard; all have come short; all have missed the mark.

This standard of God’s glory points us again to Jesus, both “the brightness of His [the Father’s] glory and the express image of His person” (Heb. 1:3).

Jesus Christ alone of all men who have ever lived, lived out His entire life by this one standard and for this one purpose – the glory of God, His Father.

Here then, defined and demonstrated for all to see, are the three basic issues upon which the eternal destiny of every human soul depends – sin, righteousness and judgement.