Righteous Before God - 5/31/09pm

Job 25:1-6 -How can a man be righteous before God?
In the book of Job, Bildad asks several rhetorical questions. Let us look at one of them: how can a man be righteous before God? Let us turn to the book of Romans, where we will look at some passages that teach us how we can, in fact, stand righteous before God.

All have sinned and made themselves unrighteous
Romans 3:1-8 -The unrighteousness of the Jews
Romans 3:9-20 -The unrighteousness also of the gentiles
Romans 3:21-31 -All are unrighteous, so Christ served as a propitiation through faith

The Lord has given us opportunity to become righteous
Romans 5:1-11 -By faith we have hope through Christ
Romans 5:12-21 -Through Christ, we can have life

So how do we become righteous?
Romans 6:1-14 -We must put sin to death in ourselves, putting on Christ
Romans 6:15-23 -Slaves to sin to slaves of God, and the consequences
Romans 12:1-2 -Present selves as a sacrifice to God
Romans 12:9-16 -Instructions for righteous living

Remember Romans 6:3-9, where we are told we must die to sin and put on Christ through baptism, and then, as we have seen, we must live a life dedicated not to sin, but to Christ. If we truly follow the Lord, we can stand righteous before Him in the last day.