Branch of Righteousness

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...1 

God from the beginning set forth his plan to bring forth His righteousness on earth. God's spirit roamed the earth looking for a righteous person, but ultimately Jesus would fulfill prophecy and be this branch of  righteousness. It was the blood of the Lamb and the testimony of those who cared not for their lives, that would overcome. We see God's plan in the beginning.

The day is coming, God says, when you (not just your offspring) will be defeated and removed from the earth. The offspring of this woman will crush you (see Romans 16:20 and Hebrews 2:14). That decisive blow was struck by the perfect offspring, Jesus Christ, when he died on the cross. This is one of the reasons why the eternal Son of God had to become a man—because it was the offspring of the woman who would crush Satan.2

God establishes a covenant with Noah, God had found favor with him. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.5 Noah became a branch of righteousness. 

Abraham believed God, this was counted as righteousness. The father of the people God had chosen to be a light unto the world. They were a lowly people despised at birth, but God took them in and through them he would make a people of his own. But they would forsake their first love, like an adulterous woman forsaking the love of her husband.6 Israel trusted in her beauty and used her fame so that others would love her and not the father. God had chose them to be a righteous branch unto the world. God wanted Hosea to understand his heart, he asked him to marry an adulterous woman. The story is there for us to understand how God feels toward us who leave his love for the love of other things.

David the son of Jesse was a man after God's heart but perfection he was not. He broke ten commandments that most of us would never do. David truly understood his righteousness was in God, his heart was completely toward God. He would abide in him like a deer panting for water and God would establish his righteousness through him. God had granted Solomon great wisdom, understanding, and wealth, but he would turn from God. Israel would turn from God's righteousness, only three kings or three generations into the kingship of Israel. So God splits the kingdom, giving the northern part to a man who followed God for only three years, his heart soon turns from God. 

God scatters the northern kingdom into all the nations and the southern kingdom, Judah, is brought into captivity, the temple of God is destroyed. This is the time of the prophecy of Jeremiah. A branch of righteousness would come from the lineage of David, God would choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them.7  Prophecy would be fulfilled in Jesus, the branch of righteousness. And this is the name by which he will be called: The LORD is our righteousness. The capitalization of LORD refers to God's name, YHWH our righteousness. We make this confession in Jesus, He is our LORD, our God, our righteousness.

Jesus became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.8 He was born in a lowly way, in a lowly town, to redeem Israel, a lowly people who had been chosen to be a light unto the world.9 Israel had rejected God but he would establish an everlasting covenant with Israel through this branch of righteousness when I provide you an atonement for all you have done.10 Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, became the scapegoat and the sin offering.11 He is the atoning sacrifice for the sins of Israel, not only Israel but for the whole world.12 As believers we have this advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous.13

Isaiah would prophesy, And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people; for the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious.14 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of YHWH.15 He would judge man by his heart, not by sight, nor by hearing, He would judge with righteousness. He would bless the meek and the poor in spirit, he would strike and slay with the words of his mouth, like a double edge sword his words would divide. Righteousness and faith he would wear. He would pour out his spirit unto all people and they would be full of the knowledge of YHWH.

We know that we are in righteousness if His spirit lives within us.16 Our righteousness is perfected in Him by the love of Christ, whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him.17 Our foundation is built upon him and His righteousness, He is our Rock, our cornerstone. We grow our roots deep in his love, and as trees planted by the water, we bear fruit in season.18 Jesus is our living water, we are to be rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Our righteousness is not in obeying the law, but by abiding in him, as he is the vine in which we find our righteousness. 

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.19

Jesus, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which we could not do in the flesh, he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths. We are to hold fast to the vine, being nourished in him, the nutrient provider. Food, drink, festival, moons, sabbaths, these are a shadow of things to come. Regulations of do not touch, do not taste... These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.20

The law is righteous but God's righteousness could not be accomplished by the law, because of the sinful nature, the flesh was weak. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.21  Their righteousness was in following the Law. God sent His son in fullness of Grace and Truth, the Word dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, as that of the Father, he would wipe out the requirement of us to fulfill the law in the flesh. But as they did then we too tend to seek our own righteousness. While following the law is good, it doesn't make us righteous. We must believe in Him to be righteous, we must abide in Him to walk in righteousness. He sent us a helper to guide us into all truth and to give us the power to abide in him.   

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.22

This word for remain means I tarry as a guest, lodge, to be kept; I do not depart, do not leave; to continue, to last, to endure, to live; to remain as one. This is the concept of being in the spirit, walking in the spirit, having the mind of Christ, I can only do these things in Him. In him I am righteous! In him I abide and remain. In him I endure. In him I am saved. It is his righteousness that justified me, it is his works on the cross that made me righteous, and it is his righteousness I walk in. I am justified by this not the law, if I turn back to the law and do not abide in Him, I have severed myself from Him, as I now depend upon the law for righteousness. These basic principles of the world we died to in Christ, our world is a spiritual one, we are raised to the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, joint-heirs. We have such a great cloud of witnesses around us, as He makes the mystery of the gospel known through us.

A branch that is truly connected to the vine will have the life of the vine flowing in it. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.23  This everlasting covenant is through Jesus, when we believe, put faith in Him, we are sealed with the Spirit of God, our connection to the vine. And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.24 This word for abide, menó, is to remain, abide, stay, await. As believers we are made righteous in Him, a seal of this is His spirit, who lives within us, who empowers us, helps us, to live to his standards of righteousness. 

Like a tree planted by water the spirit will produce fruit in due season, if we faint not. The fruit of his spirit exceeds the righteousness of our own. Unlike religious people who have learned to be good people in the flesh, living to his righteousness can only be accomplished by abiding in the vine, therefore we are his branch of righteousness. Yes, if I love him then I will follow his commandments. He commands me to love. It is loving him as he first loved us, it is loving your neighbor, getting in the ditch to help them, sacrificing your wealth, and even your life, for there is no greater love than this. It is forgiving someone who took something so loved by you.25 It is loving others, his children, as Jesus does, He has shown us how to love. Yes, if I love him then I follow his commandments. I in the flesh can follow the law but loving like he does I cannot do in the flesh. knowing him is loving the least of these... if  God in his holy place is a father to the fatherless and a defender of widows then we are to be as He is, a father to the fatherless and a defender of widows. This is pure religion, as it is fruit of the spirit, of abiding in the vine, When we abide in the vine we will bear fruit in due season and we will be a branch of righteousness. 

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is complete toward him.26 Will he find you? will you be His righteousness?

How Great Thou Art