PMW 2025-098 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

As I conclude this brief three-part study on God’s goodness to us in creation, I want to close with the fact that our Creator is perfectly righteous.

God Is Perfectly Righteous

The God who creates man and gives him all good things, is perfect and righteous. The Bible repeatedly speaks of God’s absolute righteousness, making such statements as:

“The Rock! His work is perfect, / For all His ways are just; / A God of faithfulness and without injustice, / Righteous and upright is He” (Deut 32:4).
“As for God, His way is blameless” (Psa 18:30a; 2 Sam 22:31).
“Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; Your judgments are like a great deep” (Psa 36:6).
“Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens” (Psa 71:19a).
“The ways of the LORD are right” (Hos 14:9).
“The LORD is righteous within her; / He will do no injustice. / Every morning He brings His justice to light; / He does not fail. / But the unjust knows no shame” (Zeph 3:5).

Jesus prays to God calling him “righteous Father” (John 17:25).

Consequently, righteousness is a constantly manifested attribute of God. He always acts righteously, for “Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness” (Psa 119:142a). “He loves righteousness and justice” (Psa 33:5). In fact, God delights in acting righteously: “I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things” (Jer 9:24). As a result, the saints praise him: “Great and marvelous are Your works, / O Lord God, the Almighty; / Righteous and true are Your ways, / King of the nations!” (Rev 15:3).

God Expects Righteousness in Us

Righteousness is an inherent attribute of God, a specific, ever-present characteristic or quality of his nature. Because of this, he is righteous at all times and in all his ways. As a righteous Creator he creates man in his image (Gen 1:26–28) as a moral creature (Gen 2:17). Man is created as morally “upright” being possessing a moral consciousness (Eccl 7:29).

Covenantal Theonomy
(by Ken Gentry)
A defense of theonomic ethics against a leading Reformed critic. Engages many of the leading objections to theonomy.
See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

Paul associates the image of God with righteousness when he urge Christians to “put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph 4:24; cp. Col 3:9–10). He even notes that pagans have an instinctive awareness of morality: “when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them” (Rom 2:14–15).

But God does not leave man to determine his own moral standards. Rather he gives us his righteous Law so that we might know true righteousness and might properly reflect his image. He begins this in Eden by presenting a moral test to Adam in Eden to see if he will allow God to determine good and evil, or whether he will arrogate that responsibility to himself:
“The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’” (Gen 2:16–17)

Satan sees this test for what it is, and so tempts Eve accordingly. He entices her by holding out the prospect of her sitting as God, determining good and evil: “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing [i.e., determining] good and evil” (Gen 3:5).

From the beginning, therefore, our righteous God expects righteousness from us. And he continues calling us to righteousness throughout Scripture and throughout history. As he delivers Israel from bondage and establishes her as a nation he charges her to righteous conduct: “You shall be blameless before the LORD your God” (Deut 18:13).

God’s Law Guides our Righteousness

To guide Israel in the paths of righteousness he reveals his Law to her: “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today” (Deut 8:11). He gives her his Law in order to serve as the foundation of her national existence. Therefore, we read that Moses challenges Israel: “what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?” (Deut 4:8).

God’s Law Made Easy

(by Kenneth Gentry)

Summary for the case for the continuing relevance of God’s Law. A helpful summary of the argument from Greg L. Bahnsen’s Theonomy in Christian Ethics.

See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

The Lord does not give his righteous Law to Israel as a distinctive for her alone. He expressly states that Israel must live in terms of his Law’s statutes in order to be an example to the nations: “keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations” (Deut 4:6). And this continues into the New Testament for Paul notes in Romans 3:19: “we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.”

Just a few verses after declaring the whole world under God’s Law Paul rhetorically asks: “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law” (Rom 3:31). Later he teaches Timothy that the Law continues as binding upon men as necessary for curtailing sin and crime, and that it is a continuing function of “sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel”:

“We know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.”

Because of this righteous standard of morality revealed by God for Israel and the world, we find recurring calls to righteousness in Scripture. For instance, Jesus calls down blessings upon those who seek righteousness: “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matt 5:6). And he promises as a consequence that if we “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. . . all these things [i.e., food and clothing] will be added to you.”

The Lord even calls his followers to strict righteousness by commanding them: “you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). Our standard for this perfect righteousness is his Law, for Paul declares: “the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (Rom 7:12; cp. 7:16; 1 Tim 1:8).

Conclusion

The Christian worldview, which is rooted in Scripture, recognizes God as the Creator who made man in his own image. This necessarily entails man’s being a moral creature. We find the record of creation and of man’s earliest days in Genesis 1–2. There we learn that God creates a “very good” world and is good to man in giving him a happy, peaceful, wholesome, and productive environment.

God is a perfectly righteous God who expects man to live righteously in his world. Therefore, he gives man a righteous Law to guide him in his behavior. The Law is given to Israel to guide her in her own national conduct. But she is to be a model of righteousness so that the nations would adopt God’s Law as their standard. And God’s Law prevails even today as the universal standard of righteousness. Jesus calls upon his followers to strive to be perfect, because God is perfect.

As It Is Written: The Genesis Account Literal or Literary?
Book by Ken Gentry

Presents the exegetical evidence for Six-day Creation and against the Framework Hypothesis. Strong presentation and rebuttal to the Framework Hypothesis, while demonstrating and defending the Six-day Creation interpretation.

See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com