How to Take on God's Righteousness

A Picture of a white robe

"Take on God's righteousness." This phrase is not in the Bible, but preachers and teachers use it as if it is. This article explains what taking on God's righteousness would be if it were in the Bible.

A Plague of Fake Definitions

The phrase "take on God's righteousness" comes from a world of fake definitions.

Christianity is plagued with fake definitions for Bible words. The people who invent these fake definitions do not make them fake intentionally. But their definitions end up fake because they don't go far enough in their study. They do not do their due diligence in studying the history of the English words of the Bible (to find out what these words meant in 1611 or 1395 when they entered the English Bible), the meaning of the Greek words behind them, or how they are used in the Bible.

Books, lessons, and sermons are full of fake definitions. Some seminaries even double-down on the fake definitions, teaching and enlarging them instead of ferreting out the true definitions.

Fake definitions have fertile ground among Christians because Christians think the words with the fake definitions are "Bible words" with special spiritual meaning when in fact they are just outdated and/or misleading words from a bygone era. If they were updated and/or corrected to today's words (which newer Bible versions should do, but don't), there would be no need for definitions. Everyone would know what they mean.

It is because of this failure of today's Bible versions that I wrote the Breakthrough Version and the Breakthrough KJV. They are in everyday English that everyone knows and understands and are much more accurate than today's Bibles.

The phrase "take on God's righteousness" grows in a field of fake definitions for "believe", "faith", "impute", "righteous", and "justify". It is used to explain the fake definitions of "justification" and "implied righteousness".

Even though this phrase is not from the Bible, it has a Bible word in it (righteousness) and it is similar to a phrase in Romans 10:3 (submit to God's righteousness) whose context sheds light on its meaning. This article explains these.

The Meaning of Righteousness

In order to understand this phrase, you must know what righteousness is. The word righteousness is an outdated word. It goes all the way back to the first English Bible (The Wycliffe Bible) in 1395. That is over six hundreds years ago. Much has changed in English since then. Back then righteousness was spelled riytwisnesse. If you lived back then, you would know what righteousness and hundreds of other Bible words mean because you would be using them in your everyday secular conversations.

Righteousness is a dead word today. It died a long time ago. You would not even know it ever existed if it were not in the Bible.

What does righteousness mean? There is a right way of doing things and there is a wrong way of doing things. The right way of doing things is righteousness. It is more than what is right. It is the right way.

Righteousness can be replaced with the words, "right way". God's righteousness is God's right way. Taking on God's righteousness is taking on God's right way.

Everyone has their own right way (their own righteousness). This is what they think is the right way of doing things.

For example, most people think that the right way to peel a banana is to start at the top, but some think the right way is to start at the bottom. This is just one of many positions people hold that make up their righteousness. Their beliefs about God are also a part of their righteousness.

A person's righteousness is built on how he was raised and what he has been taught.

Your Righteousness versus God's Righteousness

Romans 10:3 says, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God" (KJV).

From what you have read so far in this article, you may understand what this verse means. If not, replace "righteousness" with "right way". "For being unaware of the right way of God and looking to establish their own right way, they haven't placed themselves under the right way of God" (BV).

With many Christians and pastors, this is a real struggle (even though they may not see it): their righteousness versus God's righteousness. They go to the Bible with what they think is right and look for verses to support their view. If they have to twist the meaning of a passage, add in extraBiblical explanations, or take verses out of context, they do it so that they can get the Bible to back up their righteousness. They are not concerned with what the Bible actually means. They just want to make it agree with them.

Every Sunday pastors stand up in their pulpits and preach their own righteousness as if it is God's righteousness. This is wrong. They have not submitted to God's righteousness.

Taking on God's Righteousness

No one starts with the right set of beliefs. God's righteousness is something everyone must take on. They do so with an initial step and then many next steps.

The Initial Step

The first and biggest step in God's right way is trusting God and His Son, Jesus. God has all power. He has all knowledge. He is everywhere. He loves you. He will do what is best. He can be trusted. Trust Him.

The initial step of trust is mentioned over a hundred times in the New Testament. Many people miss it because the words "believe" and "faith" are misleading words in the Bible that actually mean trust.

If you trust God, He will take you on the right paths. Trust is considered (or counted) as the right way. The previous sentence stated in Bible terms is "believing (or faith) is imputed for righteousness" (Romans 4:11, 22; James 2:23).

The Next Steps

The Bible has God's righteousness (God's right way) in it. If you want to find God's righteousness, you must approach the Bible honestly. Read and meditate on it in context. Let the Bible teach you. When you find something that disagrees with what you think is right, change your way of thinking to agree with the Bible.

Read and meditate on the Bible daily. Use a Bible that you can correctly understand, one that is accurate to the Greek and does not have outdated or misleading words (breakthroughversion.com). This will provide the next steps in God's righteousness.

How does a person take on God's righteousness? He finds out what God considers to be right and he changes his viewpoint and actions to agree with it.