Brethren, my heart’s desire, and prayer to God for

 

Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them

 

record that they have a zeal of God, but not

 

according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of

 

God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their

 

own righteousness, have not submitted themselves

 

unto the righteousness of God (Romans 10:1-3).

 

Isaiah 64:6 tells us that man’s

 

righteousness: his own thought-out ways

 

of trying to serve and please God, are as

 

filthy rags. There’s no use having

 

confidence in your so-called good works,

 

to answer for you before God.

 

This was the dilemma of the children of Israel, which

 

the Apostle Paul decried in our opening text. Though

 

they were zealous for God and engaged in all forms of

 

religious devotions, purifications, oblations, etc., they

 

erred in three distinct ways in their pursuit of

 

righteousness. First, they were ignorant of God’s

 

righteousness, secondly, they went about to establish

 

their own righteousness, and thirdly, they didn’t submit

 

themselves to the righteousness of God.

 

The third point gives an indication of God’s expectation:

 

we’re to submit to His righteousness, because

 

righteousness isn’t something you attain by your own

 

works; it’s a gift from God. Romans 5:17 says, "…they

 

which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of

 

righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ."

 

The requirement to attain the righteousness of God is

 

simply to believe in Jesus Christ with all your heart and

 

receive the gift of eternal life. That’s why it’s called

 

righteousness by faith.

 

Philippians 3:8-9 tells us to embrace this righteousness

 

which is through the faith of Christ Jesus: "…that I may

 

win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own

 

righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is

 

through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of

 

God by faith." This righteousness produces in you the

 

rightness of God, such that by instinct you know what is

 

right, and are able to live blameless before God. You

 

didn’t work to attain it, yet it works in you, having been

 

imparted to your spirit as a gift.