Faith? Works? Righteousness? Is it all the same?

Ephesians 6:14-17 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, and the word of God.

Righteousness. What a big word. I often get hear this word and think "right doing." But it carries with it something that is spiritual - no matter what religion you are, it has moral implications in it.

In Christianity, we can gain righteousness through faith (and obedience) to God. And in this we are really looking to obey the one he sent, Jesus. I suppose this is important to point out because in the Old Testament, God used the Israelis to carry out his purpose. Their only requirement was to obey. The classic example is Gideon who took about 300 into battle against 135,000 Midianites.

And here is the important distinction, it took faith for Gideon to do what he did. His actions/faith was credited to him as righteousness.

When we talk about Jesus, we talk about putting our faith in him. And in doing so, we say we believe that His righteousness will cover our sins. His right standing with God will open the gates to heaven for us.

In response to this gift, we choose to live a life that demonstrates that faith and brings honor to Him. That means I will do works that support the teachings found in scriptures and I will chip away at those things in my life that are contrary to the things found in scripture.

Now, my personal reflection here is that it is not my job to make other people like me or like Christ. I believe that God calls, we answer. If you are reading this, I would question whether or not God is calling you. My experience tells me that people plants seeds in the hearts of others for years, and then one day, God makes those seeds sprout, and you discover a new life at work within you.

Personally, I don't care if you are atheist, agnostic, Buddhist, Islamic, gay, bi, straight, democrat, republican, independent, white, Indian, Asian, black, Hispanic, or undefined. I believe God is always ready to launch that new life in you. Don't be afraid of what you might find if you say "Yes" to God.