Religious Or Righteous?

Text: Matthew 23:1-7

Strict observation of religious activities like giving of alms, praying and fasting, regular church attendance, payment of tithes and offering, and so on, without genuine repentance should not be mistaken for righteousness.

There are many church people who practice these things and still continue in sin – secret and open. The Lord will not accept any of them in lieu of godliness.

However, righteousness comes when a sinner hears the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, becomes convicted of sin and makes a decision to turn to God for pardon and forgiveness. God has promised to forgive every repentant sinner. He says: ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9).

Those who refuse to accept Christ but continue in religious activities which do not save will eventually regret at the end of their lives. According to the Scripture, God is angry with such people and if they die in that condition, they will spend eternity in hell where Satan will torment them forever.

But the sinner who believes God’s promise to forgive and cleanse, he or she will receive pardon on the merit of Christ’s atonement on the Cross. The pardoned believer will have a witness of the Holy Spirit that he or she is born again and has become a child of God. Therefore, a new lifestyle will begin: ‘Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new’ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

In this renewed state of being, the believer will not only be religious but righteous, godly, holy, kind, loving, gracious and God-fearing. His everyday life will be different from what it used to be. His passion and pursuit will be centered on God and he will labour to get to heaven on the last day.

The question now is this: ‘are you merely religious or righteous?’ This is a question for you and me and for everyone who professes to be in Christ. Now is the best time to ‘examine yourself to know whether you are in the faith; prove your own self… (2 Corinthians 13:5). Yet, don’t deceive yourself thinking nobody knows and sees you; ‘God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap’ (Galatians 6:7).

And ultimately, ‘…the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity’ (2 Timothy 2:19).

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