LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, JEHOVAH TSIDKENU

We know that the Lord is righteous, but this title of Jehovah Tsidkenu shows how the righteousness of God comes to troubled sinners. It celebrates how His righteousness can become our righteousness.

In spite of Israel’s compounded problems of guilt and sin, a deliverer was promised. This man is called ‘the Branch’, Zech. 3.8. From His lowly beginnings, like those of a bud or sprout, He would progress until full-grown, great, and fruitful. The Branch is seen to be from the stock of David’s family, when it seemed that revival was impossible. Most had given up on it as dead. This righteous Branch ‘shall reign and prosper’, Jer. 23. 5. The kings of the house of David in Jeremiah’s day were unjust and oppressive. It is no surprise that they did not prosper. The Branch, however, will succeed, conquering the usurper, and instituting a perfect rule of holiness for all mankind.

How is this accomplished? His title is Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness, Jer. 23. 6. As God, He is Jehovah, eternal and self-existent. As Mediator, He is our righteousness. By satisfying the full justice of God against sin, He has made available an everlasting righteousness. He accomplished this by His death, burial, and resurrection. We are made the righteousness of God in Him. As our Advocate, He is ‘Jesus Christ the righteous’, 1 John 2.1. All our righteousness, practical and positional, has its origin in Him, and it is maintained by Him. By Jehovah Tsidkenu we are justified before God, acquitted from guilt, and accepted into favour.

‘When free grace awoke me, by light from on high,
Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;
No refuge, no safety in self could I see -
Jehovah Tsidkenu my Saviour must be.’ [R. M. McCheyne]

If Christ is called by name Jehovah Tsidkenu, then not only is He righteous, but He shall be known to be righteous. In Romans we see how the righteousness of God is put on display in the gospel of Christ. ‘For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith’, Rom. 1.16-17 NKJV.