Percolated coffee reminds me of Sunday nights in St.Thomas with David’s aunt and uncle long ago. We worked there and spent Sundays on the water in their houseboat, studying God’s word because our son, Luke, was a noisy baby. The island church had no nursery worker, but me, and no attending babies, but Luke.

Retired Uncle Luther likened God’s sovereignty in salvation to a bird whose one wing displays what God does and the other representing man’s responsibility. I may have learned more about El Tsaddik, our Righteous God, from his simple explanations than I acquired from four years of Bob Jones University’s Bible classes.

Here’s what God does in a nutshell.

According to biblestudytools.com the English word RIGHTEOUSNESS comes from words based on the stems JUST and RIGHT. “God the Father is righteous (just); Jesus Christ his Son is the Righteous (Just) One; the Father through the Son and in the Spirit gives the gift of righteousness (justice) to repentant sinners for salvation; such believing sinners are declared righteous (just) by the Father through the Son, are made righteous (just) by the Holy Spirit working in them, and will be wholly righteous (just) in the age to come…” because here in this life he will “…bring to completion what he has begun in them by declaring them righteous for Christ’s sake.”

Here’s man’s response in a nutshell.

Biblestudytools.com continues explaining that believers “… could never become righteous before God by their efforts to conform their lives to his will, OUT OF GRATITUDE and LOVE THEY ARE TO SERVE HIM because he has given them the gift of salvation through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has pronounced them righteous, he has reconciled them to himself and removed their alienation, and he has transformed their relation to him into that of friendship. Therefore, since God has made them his own and given to them his righteousness, their duty and privilege is to be righteous in conduct.”

El Tsaddik has created a JUST plan for man. He has initiated it. He has done it all as beautifully described in Isaiah 45 and throughout the New Testament. Man’s faithful and obedient response, by God’s grace, keeps him in RIGHT relationship with God.

Because we will fail, we cling to this promise found in Isaiah 41:10, “I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.” The Creator’s holy and royal right-hand holds the world in place with power and majesty. Charles Spurgeon shares these thoughts. “Weak may be our feet, but almighty is God’s right hand. Rough may be the road, but Omnipotence is our upholding. We may boldly go forward. We shall not fall. Let us lean continually, where all things lean. God will not withdraw his strength, for His righteousness is there as well: he will be faithful to his promise, and faithful to his Son, and therefore faithful to us.”

Dear righteous Father, bring me to the cross and leave me there!