What’s In A Name?, Pt. 13: Tsidkenu

Jeremiah 23:5-6                    5“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior.

Jeremiah 33:14-16                14“ ‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. 15“ ‘In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. 16In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior.’

Romans 3:23b-26                  …all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

The Hebrew word Tsidkenu is the expanded form of the verb tsedek (or zedek).  It is translated “righteous” in these verses, but the original meaning is “to be made straight.”  The thought conveyed in combining Tsidkenu with YHWH is that God, who has no part with sin, is righteous in and of Himself and counts His people righteous through Himself.

This is a profound and meaningful ingredient in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Gospel after all means good news and it is good news indeed that we can be made free of the consequences of sin through the righteousness of Yeshua.  But to understand the Romans verse we need to understand two key words there; the word justifies or by extension justification, and the word righteousness.

1.     Righteousness.  We are used to thinking of God as holy but not so much do people, especially the unredeemed, think of His righteousness.  Holiness is a moral and ethical concept used to describe the very essence of a person.  It refers to the absence of sin.  Righteousness is a legal or forensic concept used to describe the ability of an individual to abide by the governing laws in place.  Holiness and righteousness are different issues easily understood when one considers human law.  A law, e.g. abortion, at one and the same time, may be both legal and unholy.  There is no such contradiction with God’s Law.  It is both holy and just because God is pure and sinless in all that He is and does.

2.     Justification.  The same cannot be said about human beings.  We are not pure and we are sinful.  We are not righteous by nature and so cannot have relationship with a righteous God.  And it makes no difference what one’s station is in life.  Whether Jew or Gentile, greatly religious or greatly sinful, exalted or completely base, each human being has a sin nature and is prone to sin at his core.  But imagine the word-picture presented by justification.  Consider the scene:  A courtroom, oak paneling on the walls, the angelic audience in rapt attention.  You are in the dock accused of violating God’s Law.  The evidence is clearly against you but the prosecutor (Satan) and advocate (Jesus) are arguing your fate:  Should you be condemned?  Then from the judge (YHWH) comes the verdict.  NOT GUILTY!

But even this beautiful picture is insufficient to describe justification.  You have been declared innocent but you also have been declared righteous.  How can that be, you ask, since I am so profoundly sinful.  The answer is that since you are base at your core, but nonetheless innocent, God has imputed righteous to you from an outside source.  He has given you the gift of holiness and righteousness; He has taken some of His Son’s infinite righteousness and given it to you!

It is true that people are sinful at their core but it is also true that some people do good things.  They look good on the surface but these good things are all expressions of self-interest, self-protection, or self-preservation.  The Bible talks about this; it recognizes that even the best people, doing the best things fall short of the glory of God.

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

But lest we give up in despair God also provides the solution.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2Corinthians 5:17)

And,

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2Corinthians 5:21)

The jist of all this is that we in our own efforts can do nothing to affect our salvation.  We can’t strive for righteousness in our own efforts.  How dishonoring it is then to God’s grace and Christ’s atoning sacrifice to attempt our own salvation through acts of righteousness or moral perfection.  The apostle Paul understood this and wrote,

7But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9and 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. 10I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:7-11)

The only solution is to accept God’s grace and righteousness through the salvation offered by His Son Jesus Christ.  Dear reader if you have not yet accepted Jesus as your Savior it is time now to do it.  I’m sure you see the world going to hell in a handbasket around you.  Say these words aloud and believe in them:

“Dear God, I want to be part of your family.  You said in your Word that if I acknowledge that You raised Jesus from the dead, and that I accept Him as my Lord and Savior, I would be saved.  So God, I now say that I believe You raised Jesus from the dead and that He is alive and well.  I accept Him as my personal Savior and Lord.  I accept my salvation from sin right now.

I am now saved.  Jesus is my Lord and my Savior.  Thank you Father God, for forgiving me, saving me, and giving me eternal life with You.  Amen.”

Gowens, M.L. (2016).  A Study of God’s Hebrew Names.  Shallotte, NC: Sovereign Grace Publications.