36 Bible Verses about Righteousness, As Faith
Most Relevant Verses
For I tell you that unless your righteousness far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven at all.
So you, too, on the outside seem to people to be upright, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Then He said to them, "You are the men who exhibit your uprightness before the public, but God knows your hearts. For what stands high in the sight of men is detestable in the sight of God.
To some people who were confident that they themselves were upright, but who scorned everybody else, He told the following story:
by the standard set by zeal, I was a persecutor of the church, and measured by the uprightness reached by keeping the law, I was faultless. But for Christ's sake I have counted all that was gain to me as loss.
For though the law could not do it, because it was made helpless through our lower nature, yet God, by sending His own Son in a body similar to that of our lower nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, passed sentence upon sin through His body, so that the requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live by the standard set by our lower nature, but by the standard set by the Spirit.
and put on the new self which has been created in the likeness of God, which fruits in right and holy living inspired by the truth.
If you know that He is upright, you must know that everyone who practices uprightness is born of Him.
and you must stop offering to sin the parts of your bodies as instruments for wrongdoing, but you must once for all offer yourselves to God as persons raised from the dead to live on perpetually, and once for all offer the parts of your bodies to God as instruments for right-doing.
But if Christ lives in you, although your bodies must die because of sin, your spirits are now enjoying life because of right standing with God.
For the kingdom of God does not consist in what we eat and drink, but in doing right, in peace and joy through the Holy Spirit;
For we, by the Spirit, are awaiting the hoped-for blessing which our right standing with God will bring us.
for the product of light consists in practicing everything that is good and right and true;
men that are abounding in the fruits of right-doing with the help of Jesus Christ, to the honor and praise of God.
Now for the time being no discipline seems to be pleasant; it is painful; later on, however, to those who are trained by it, it yields the fruit of peace which grows from upright character.
He bore our sins in His own body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to uprightness. By His wounds you have been healed,
This is the way to distinguish God's children from the devil's children. No one who fails to do right is God's child, and no one who fails to love his brother.
but without faith it is impossible to please Him, for anyone who approaches God must believe that there is a God and that He gives rewards to all who earnestly try to find Him.
Meantime, my righteous servant will live by faith. But if a man draws back, my soul has no delight in him."
By faith Abel offered a sacrifice more acceptable to God than Cain did, for by it he was approved as an upright man, since God approved him for the offering he made; and by it he still continues to speak, though dead.
For in the good news God's Way of man's right standing with Him is uncovered, the Way of faith that leads to greater faith, just as the Scripture says, "The upright man must live by faith."
Yes, indeed, I certainly do count everything as loss compared with the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have lost everything, and value it all as mere refuse, in order to gain Christ and be actually in union with Him, not having a supposed right standing with God which depends on my doing what the law commands, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the real right standing with God which originates from Him and rests on faith.
and that through union with Him every one of you who believes is given right standing with God and freed from every charge from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.
But now God's way of giving men right standing with Himself has come to light; a way without connection with the law, and yet a way to which the law and the prophets testify.
Then what are we to say about our forefather Abraham? For if he was considered in right standing with God on the condition of what he did, he has something to boast of, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him as right standing with God."read more.
Now when a workman gets his pay, it is not considered from the point of view of a favor but of an obligation; but the man who does no work, but simply puts his faith in Him who brings the ungodly into right standing with Himself, has his faith credited to him as right standing. So David, too, describes the happiness of the man to whom God credits right standing with Himself, without the things he does having anything to do with it: "Happy are they whose transgressions have been forgiven, whose sins were covered up; Happy the man whose sin the Lord does not charge against him!"
For if by one man's offense death reigned through that one, to a much greater degree will those who continue to receive the overflow of His unmerited favor and His gift of right standing with Himself, reign in real life through One, Jesus Christ.
What are we then to conclude? That heathen peoples who were not in search for right standing with God have obtained it, and that a right standing conditioned on faith; while Israel, though ever in pursuit of a law that would bring right standing, did not attain to it.
Now it is evident that through the law no man is brought into right standing with God, for "The man in right standing with God will live by faith," and the law has nothing to do with faith, but it says, "It is the man who does these things that will live by doing them."
Since we have been given right standing with God through faith, then let us continue enjoying peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have an introduction through faith into this state of God's favor, in which we safely stand; and let us continue exulting in the hope of enjoying the glorious presence of God.
But now God's way of giving men right standing with Himself has come to light; a way without connection with the law, and yet a way to which the law and the prophets testify. God's own way of giving men right standing with Himself is through faith in Jesus Christ. It is for everybody who has faith, for no distinction at all is made. For everybody has sinned and everybody continues to come short of God's glory,read more.
but anybody may have right standing with God as a free gift of His undeserved favor, through the ransom provided in Christ Jesus. For God once publicly offered Him in His death as a sacrifice of reconciliation through faith, to demonstrate His own justice (for in His forbearance God had passed over men's former sins); yes, to demonstrate His justice at the present time, to prove that He is right Himself, and that He considers right with Himself the man who has faith in Jesus.
Abraham, building on hope in spite of hopeless circumstances, had faith, and so he actually became the father of many nations, just as it had been told him, "So numberless shall your descendants be." Because he never weakened in faith, he calmly contemplated his own vital powers as worn out (for he was about one hundred years old) and the inability of Sarah to bear a child, and yet he never staggered in doubt at the promise of God but grew powerful in faith, because he gave the glory to Godread more.
in full assurance that He was able to do what He had promised. Therefore, his faith was credited to him as right standing with God. It was not for his sake alone that it was written, "It was credited to him"; it was for our sakes too, for it is going to be credited to us who put our faith in God who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus, who was given up to death because of our shortcomings and was raised again to give us right standing with God.
But here is what the faith-way to right standing says, "Do not say to yourself, 'Who will go up to heaven?'" that is, to bring Christ down; or "'Who will go down into the depths?'" that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? "God's message is close to you, on your very lips and in your heart"; that is, the message about faith which we preach.read more.
For if with your lips you acknowledge the fact that Jesus is Lord, and in your hearts you believe that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For in their hearts people exercise the faith that leads to right standing, and with their lips they make the acknowledgment which means salvation.
just as "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him as right standing with God"? So you see, it is the men of faith who are the real descendants of Abraham. Because the Scripture foresaw that God would bring the heathen into right standing with Himself on condition of faith, He beforehand proclaimed the good news to Abraham in the promise, "It is through you that all the heathen will be blessed."read more.
So the men of faith are blessed as partners with trusting Abraham.
Was not our forefather Abraham shown to be upright by his good deeds, namely, by offering Isaac his son upon the altar? You see that faith cooperated with his good deeds, and by his good deeds faith was made complete; and so the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him for uprightness, and he was called God's friend."read more.
You see that a man is shown to be upright by his good deeds, and not merely by his faith.
