Names of God Series: Declared Righteous through Jehovah Tsidkenu

 By: Rebekah Hargraves

Photo Courtesy of: Doug R. W. Dunigan

"'Look, the days are coming'—this is the Lord’s declaration— 'when I will raise up a Righteous Branch for David. He will reign wisely as king and administer justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. This is the name he will be called: The Lord Is Our Righteousness." 

~Jeremiah 23:5-6

It has often been said that Jesus shows up on every page of Scripture - not only in the New Testament, but also in the Old. This is certainly clearly seen in the case of this passage of Scripture where God is given the name Jehovah Tsidkenu, literally meaning "The Lord Our Righteousness", pointing to the fact that, through Christ, we are indeed made righteous.

I don't know about you, but this is such good news for my soul! I come from a years-long background of legalism and also by nature tend to have a self-critical, perfectionist type of mindset. I regularly need to be reminded that my righteousness before God does not depend on myself - it doesn't depend on my "perfectly" keeping a bunch of rules. It isn't about self-righteousness at all! It is all about the perfect, thorough, holy, spotless righteousness of the God of the universe being imputed to my account through Christ. What a gift! What a load off! 

That is the good news of the gospel - that we don't have to attempt to save ourselves, depend on ourselves, look to ourselves, or prove ourselves. Our righteousness comes solely from Christ, and if we are His, then when God the Father looks at us, He no longer sees our sin, but rather only sees the righteousness of Christ Himself.

But this is where it gets even better - this righteousness is not only a gift for our eternity, insuring that we will be able to spend eternity with God in Heaven. It's really good news for our here and now everyday lives, as well. Because not only does it mean we don't have to strive for perfection on our own, it also means we are safeguarded against the attacks of the enemy! 

What do I mean by that? 

Well, when we take a look at Ephesians 6:10-18 where Paul equips us for how to wage spiritual warfare against the enemy and tells us how we can be victorious in a battle such as that, one of the pieces of our God-given armor that he references is the "breastplate of righteousness" (see Ephesians 6:14).  

What this means is that areas of sin, temptation, backsliding, etc., all give the enemy an open door to wreak havoc in our lives through spiritual warfare. But when we are daily intentional and conscientious to put on God's breastplate of righteousness - in essence agreeing with God about how He see us and living out of that truth! - then we are guarded against the enemy's attacks and far better able to fight back and come out the other side victorious. 

What a two-fold blessing that imputed righteousness truly is!

Reflection Questions:

1) How does this name of God and its meaning encourage you?

2) Do you have a background of legalism wherein you've thought (or maybe sometimes still think!) that your righteousness depends on yourself?

3) How can you take the truth of today's passage with you into the rest of your day today and also use it to encourage others with the good news of the gospel? How can you use it to help you and others wage war against the enemy?