This week, in part three of our series on “The Names of God”, we are looking at the name Jehovah Tsidkenu, which means “The Lord Our Righteousness”. The name is revealed in the book of Jeremiah 23:5-6.

Jeremiah 23:5–6 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

This name of God was a prophetic declaration that was fulfilled in Christ. Throughout the Old Testament, we see a recurring narrative of people and leaders straying from God's commands. God revealed that there would come a day when He would send the righteous branch (Jesus), and His name would be Jehovah Tsidkenu: The Lord our Righteousness.

I love how each name reveals a distinct aspect of His nature to us. Jehovah Jireh, our Provider; Jehovah Rapha, our Healer; and now Jehovah Tsidkenu, our Righteousness.

The common thread I see when I look at each of these names is that He is the source of all that we need. What I love about the revelation through His names is that we see this great exchange. He takes our lack and gives us provision. He takes our sickness and gives us health.

Today, we will see that He takes our sin and gives us His righteousness. If there is a big idea wrapped into this message, it is this: We cannot make ourselves righteous.

This name of God reveals the counter reality to what most people spend their lives trying to do, and that is to prove that they are “good enough.” Good enough for God, Good enough for people, and Good enough to silence guilt and shame.

But the Bible teaches: morality is not enough, religion is not enough, and our effort is not enough. One of the distinctions of the gospel is that you and I lacked the ability to be good enough on our own, but God, in His mercy and goodness, becomes for us what we could never become on our own.

Humanity Has a Righteousness Problem. Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:10 “As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;”

Through Adam, Sin became universal. It’s not just some people, or bad people. It’s all people.

Romans 5:17–19 “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”

What does this mean for us?
That even our best efforts cannot erase guilt, heal the soul, or restore fellowship with God. On our own, we lack the capacity to reach God’s holiness. After the fall of Adam and Eve, they attempted to cover themselves.

In Genesis 3:7, it says that Adam and Eve had sewn fig leaves together to cover themselves. Humanity hasn’t changed much; we still try to cover ourselves with religion, performance, image management, and good works. Although noble in its pursuit, the truth is that our best efforts still fall short.

Isaiah 64:6, says, “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.”

What we need to understand about this Name of God is that God rejects self-righteousness. When you look at Adam and Eve, God did not accept their attempt to cover themselves. He made them coats of skins instead of fig leaves. Genesis 3:21.

What was significant about this act by God is that it was a prophetic declaration of what Christ would do. That God would provide covering for His people through Christ. To make the coats of skin required sacrifice, bloodshed, and substitution.

Righteousness only comes by faith.
Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

This is critical to understand. You are not saved by striving, performance, or religious activity. It’s not a checklist of religious activity or how many times you have read and prayed. Righteousness comes by faith as a result of God’s grace.

The grace of God is undeserved acceptance and love that is extended to sinners who cannot earn it through their own efforts. This is the beauty of the name Jehovah Tsidkenu. He is The Lord our Righteousness.

Romans 5:6–8 “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

The Great Exchange:
Jesus Took We Receive
Sin Righteousness
Shame Acceptance
Condemnation Freedom
Death Life
Judgment Grace

This is how he fulfilled Jeremiah 23:5-6 to become the Lord Our Righteousness.

A beautiful example of this in the bible is seen in Zechariah 3:1-4.
Zechariah 3:1–4 “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”

This is the picture of this name. God removes the dirty garments and clothes him with clean garments. He didn’t earn it. They were given to him. Isaiah 61:10.

Isaiah 61:10 “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
This is the beauty of God’s grace.

There is one last thing I want to consider as we prepare to close this message: the issue of self-righteousness.

A fundamental impulse of the sin nature is to earn merit through personal effort. We often have great difficulty because of our naturally prideful hearts to accept that there is nothing we can do to help.

Self-righteousness is rooted in legalism and performance-based thinking. This is where people assert their righteousness through what they do, and it is seen in a legalistic delight in imposing burdens on others, in order for them to be more righteous.

A perfect example of this was the Pharisees. In Matthew 23 Jesus rebukes the Pharisee’s for acting righteous and religious but inwardly they were corrupt. He makes a direct statement in Matthew 23:27.

Matthew 23:27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”

They had the appearance of moral compliance but inwardly were far from Him. The result was simply being religious. They wore beautiful robes, prayed publicly, and rigidly followed rules to appear holy, but beneath the pristine exterior, they were spiritually dead, full of greed, self-indulgence, and hypocrisy.

One hallmark of the Pharisee is that they didn’t measure themselves against God’s standard. They measured themselves against others through comparison, and they were marked by contempt for people for not being religious enough.

Luke 18:9–14 “Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The simple revelation of this is that if we are living self-righteous before God, we need to repent. There is no other way but Jesus and receiving grace through faith. It is not our works, and there is no room to boast. It is only what Christ has done.

The truth is, we are not worthy of anything God gives us. It is simply by His abundant mercy that we receive good from Him. With that in mind, we would be wise to distinguish in our lives between outward behavior and inner disposition.

Remember this: Religion cannot transform the heart; only Jesus can.