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Well, I have finally gotten through every verse in the NIS translation on Righteousness.  Now, I turn to the New Testament, and am pleasantly (and only a little) surprised to find Jesus picking right up where our study left off.  However, let me first set the stage.

 ¹In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea ²and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” ³This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
   ”A voice of one calling in the desert,
   ’Prepare the way for the Lord,
      make straight paths for him.’ “

Matthew is quoting Isaiah 40:3, a prophecy that would usher in the ministry of Jesus’ 1st coming.  Now it happens that Isaiah has many many verses on righteousness.  The righteousness verses immediately preceding Isaiah 40:3 are in chapters 32 and 33, and I write of them here in Isaiah 32, 33 - Transformation of the World into Christ’s Kingdom.  Following Isaiah 40:3, the word righteousness is used 17 times from Isaiah 42 to 58… strung together they read like an Essay on Righteousness, which I summarized as follows:

We are called to righteousness.

We do not live up to it.

If we look to God however, even in our failure, then we will see Him.

His righteousness will then prevail.

His righteousness will prevail in us.

In fact that summary matches up quite nicely our passage in Matthew.  Verses 1 to 3 above correspond to “We are called to righteousness. We do not live up to it.”  When the Pharisees and Sadduccees come by…

 ⁷But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadduccees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 

IOW, “If we look to God however, even in our failure, then we will see Him.”

⁹And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ¹⁰The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

 ¹¹“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹²His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

IOW, “His righteousness will then prevail.”

 ¹³Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. ¹⁴But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

 ¹⁵Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

 ¹⁶As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. ¹⁷And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

IOW, “His righteousness will prevail in us.”

Now obviously, these verses mean much more than what I’ve reduced it to.  What I am pointing out however is the logical fulfilment of the scriptures.  And in case that doesn’t make the point, recall the very last “righteousness” passage in the Old Testament, which I posted on previous to this one: Malachi 4 - The Sun of Righteousness.  It speaks of the very process that John talks about in verses 10 to 12!  Talk about continuity within scripture!

Turning now to Jesus’ statement: “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”

Jesus is saying that all righteousness must be fulfilled.  All belief, all obedience, all zealousness for God’s name… all of God’s justice.  For justice to be fulfilled, Jesus was going to have die for our sins and rise from the dead, lest mercy and pity be granted on the repentant without justice being done.  Justice allows for a substitute in punishment, and just because pity be shown to a wrong-doer for repentance, a wrong was still done, and a debt is still owed.  God can forgive the debt, and yet He arranged for its payment all the same.  And the path to it started with John’s baptism of Jesus.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 7:27 am and is filed under Word Studies, Bible Commentary, Devotional Notes, Walking with God, Righteousness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.