Tuesday, January 14

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Your statutes are always righteous; give me understanding that I may live.

—Psalm 119:144

Our modern-day heroes are lauded for many different skills and abilities—their athletic prowess, their business savvy, their persuasive powers, their charisma, their fame and clout. But there aren’t many heroes who get attention for being righteous. So if we’re going to look for such heroes, perhaps we need to turn to another source to find heroes in righteousness: the Bible.

Now keep in mind that we are using the word hero loosely here; these men and women whose stories are told in the Bible were ordinary human beings like us. They were fallen and sinful and imperfect. But even so, we can learn something from the way they chose to live their lives by the way of righteousness.

The first figure in the Bible to be called righteous was Noah. In a culture that was morally depraved—a culture in which God couldn’t find any other people who lived upright lives—Noah stood out. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God” (Genesis 6:9). For Noah, righteousness wasn’t a one-time decision. It was a way of life—a way of daily choosing to walk with God.

The next person described as righteous was Abraham. God made a vast, seemingly impossible promise to him—that he and his wife would have a son in their old age and that Abraham would be the father of an entire nation. Abraham’s response? He “believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). It’s interesting to note here that God considered Abraham’s greatest evidence of righteousness not some impressive action he took but simply his belief. 

King David, despite some rather significant moral failings, is also described as righteous. When David’s son Solomon prayed to God, he reminded the Lord of his father’s righteousness: “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart” (1 Kings 3:6). When we choose the way of righteousness, it not only blesses us but also blesses the generations that come after us.

In Jesus’ day, John the Baptist gained a reputation as someone who did what was right. He spoke the truth and stood up for what he believed, even though it eventually cost him his head. Mark 6:20 says, “Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man.” Even a man like King Herod, who did not follow God and chose a life of evil, saw and respected John’s righteous way of living.

Hebrews 11 presents a whole list of people who were considered righteous because of their faith, including Abel, one of Adam and Eve’s sons. “By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings” (Hebrews 11:4).

Best of all, the Bible says that we, too, can be found in this list of righteous heroes—not because we’re perfect or above average, but because of what Christ has done on our behalf. Philippians 3:8-9 says, “I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

Who in your life is an example of living rightly? Is there someone you would consider a hero in righteousness?

—Stephanie Rische