To be in heaven with God, one must be righteous. God is righteous, holy, pure and without sin, and nothing can dwell with him that is sinful.
It means we must be righteous, and there are only two ways.
1) Follow the Law completely, do good works, and never sin or do anything wrong
2) Trust in the righteousness God provides
The first one is every religious system in the world outside of Christ. The second one is based on Christ.
The Jews missed this. They were zealous, for sure. But they still missed it.
Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2 For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3 Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
Zeal does not equate to righteousness. Zeal is good, as long as it is based on knowledge. But in this case, their zeal was misplaced.
The Israelites were zealous for God and for the Law. But they did not know its purposes. Its purpose was to point to our need for Christ. Abraham spoke of the “seed” to come and God spoke of him as receiving righteousness by his faith. Then Moses came and the Law was brought not for salvation, but to teach us God’s ways. And to show us our need for a Savior.
The Israelites missed this and so do so many others in the world today.
Our righteousness is a gift given to us by Jesus Christ. He paid for our sins so it was not a cheap gift. It was the most expensive gift in existence.
We can receive this gift, or keep trying to earn righteousness before God with good works.
Earning our righteousness will be futile. There is no one good enough.
But we can all receive God’s righteousness. That is, if we humble ourselves, turn from our sins, and put our faith in God.
Which one do you choose?