“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness’…” – Hebrews 1:8-9
These verses in a few words tell us a lot something very important about God and His Kingdom. He is a God who loves righteousness and hates lawlessness. His Kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness. The world we live in is full of unrighteousness and lawlessness and it’s getting worse as we get closer to the return of Jesus Christ.
But what does the word “righteousness” mean?
To put it simply, righteousness is to be right, just, perfect, and acceptable before God. The Bible tells us that nobody is righteous (Rom 3:10), not a single person. Any righteousness we may have is compared to filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Even our best actions and intentions are not considered righteous to the One Holy God. The only way we can attain righteousness is through faith in Jesus Christ who became our righteousness (1 Cor 1:30). Then Christ’s righteousness must permeate us to transform our thinking and our living. But as we pursue God’s righteouness in our lives, we become more and more a contrast to this world. We grow a distaste and even a revulsion to the world and its lawlessness. We may also face persecution from the world because God’s righteousness expressed through us exposes its evil even more.
What is lawlessness?
Lawlessness is defined as having no regard for the law, being uncontrolled by the law, or being unrestrained.
Someone who is lawless does what they think is right or whatever they like to do with little regard for the law or any rules and whether it’s acceptable to God. In other words, it’s the complete opposite of God’s righteousness.
Our human nature doesn’t like to be subject to rules and laws or be under anyone’s authority. In the world, rules and laws restrain the evil and sin that’s innate in us. In a properly functioning society, rules and laws help to maintain order and prevent chaos and make it possible to have peace. Without peace, society cannot function. People would be fearful of leaving their homes; businesses would not be able to operate.
Imagine a world without laws. It would be a scary place. People could murder, steal, cheat, destroy without any consequences. If you were on the receiving end, there would be no recourse for you. You may even be forced to live lawlessly in order to survive.
Even as Christians, we are often lawless. We disregard the commandments of God and His Word. He speaks to us through His Word and His Spirit and we frequently disregard it. We tell God, “Well, that’s just the way I am! You’ll forgive me, right?”. The Bible tells us that Christians will all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ to give an account of our lives. We will either receive a severe punishment in the outer darkness for 1,000 years or receive a reward: reigning with Christ on earth for 1000 years. Where is our fear of God? We “serve God” in ways that we think are right, hoping to be recognized by people, becoming prouder, being greedy and conceited, doing things contrary to the truth, dividing the Body of Christ, and so on. What is this called? It’s called LAWLESSNESS. As Jesus said in Matt 7:23, words that will be spoken to many Christians at the Judgment Seat: “depart from me you who practice lawlessness!”
Sadly, as we’ve seen in recent events this year, lawlessness is increasing in the world. Evil people, both violent and non-violent are getting away with their evil deeds and innocent people are being harmed. The media and politicians are even complicit in their actions which shows how deep today’s lawlessness has become. It has even become acceptable and encouraged. People who speak against it are called “racist” or “hateful”.
Jesus said that one of the signs of His imminent return is an increase in lawlessness in the world. As we hear calls to defund and disband the police, villifying of police, riots and looting taking place with no consequence. We see the media applauding the rioters and looters as “peaceful protesters”. Hollywood actors donating money to bail these criminals out of jail. We are clearly seeing a rise in lawlessness as Jesus predicted.
This lawlessness in the world is a warning to us of Christ’s soon return. Among many other signs we’ve seen in this very eventful year such as the COVID-19 pandemic, locust plagues in Africa and India, economic collapse, and the release of the Middle East Peace Plan. Jesus Christ is returning to establish His Kingdom of Righteousness on this earth and put an end to all the lawlessness. Jesus is the only solution for this fallen world. No man can bring us true justice and righteousness.
Let us remember these verses from Hebrews 1:8-9 that God loves righteousness and hates lawlessness and may we allow Christ’s righteousness to eliminate our lawlessness. Let us pray for Jesus Christ to come quickly, to judge this evil world, and set up His Kingdom of righteousness.