The LORD Our Righteousness: Jehovah-tsidkenu | Devotional

“In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will lie in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.” —JEREMIAH 23:6

Jeremiah had one of the toughest roles of any prophet. He preached for 40 years in Judah until the Babylonians took the Jews into exile. And he preached to a brick wall. No one would listen, so God told him not even to pray for them. Then into the midst of their rebellion, Jeremiah suddenly comes up with this statement from God, “There is going to come a Branch from David, a righteous Branch, and this is going to be his name: The LORD Our Righteousness.” The Hebrew compound name is “Jehovah-tsidkenu”. 

Paul says in Romans 3:10, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” There is, however, a natural law within us that recognizes the need to do right. Paul talks about this in Romans, Chapter 7 where he says the things he wants to do, he doesn’t do, and the things he doesn’t want to do, he does do. There is a legacy of God’s image that remains latent within him, but it’s like pulling himself up by his shoelaces – he cannot do it. 

The problem was that the demands made upon the people of God exceeded their capabilities. The message brought by Jeremiah is that there is going to be the possibility of becoming what you were created to be, but it is not in yourself. What was lost in the Garden of Eden is going to be restored. The Lord Our Righteousness, ‘Jehovah-tsidkenu’, will be the means. Paul writes in Romans 3:21-22, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” 

This is the most important truth we will ever learn. We can only become what Christ is in our standing before God, because Christ became what we are in His standing before God. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Our sin was imputed to Christ and His righteousness imputed to us. 

In Christ, we are credited with being as pure as He is, and this is the grounds of our confidence. It isn’t based on good track records or histories, but solely on what Christ has done for us. Through His blood shed on the cross, we are cleansed, forgiven and redeemed. ‘Jehovah-tsidkenu’ means that we have no claim whatsoever outside of Christ, by which we are declared righteous. As Christians, we are accepted in the ‘Beloved’, Christ our Lord, because in this world we are like Him.

Dear Lord, as undeserving as I am, I thank You for having died for me, and having Your righteousness imputed to me in my standing before God. Your grace is amazing! 

How is the righteousness of Christ reflected in my everyday life?