JEHOVAH-TDISKENU
THE LORD is
OUR
RIGHTEOUSNESS
by LeRoy J. Gardenier
Over the centuries and under the ancient covenants the Almighty has
progressively revealed the essence of His majestic personality through the profound significance of the Divine Names. To Abraham He became JEHOVAH-JIREH, our merciful and all encompassing Provider. For the parched and panicky Israelites, led by Moses through the waste and howling wilderness, God stood as JEHOVAH-ROPHE, the loving, caring Healer. Against all enemies who threatened His Chosen Ones, He is the Lord our Banner (JEHOVAH-NISSI): the One who sets up a rallying point and an impregnable standard when the Enemy comes in like a flood. God is our Sanctifier under the title JEHOVAH-M’KADDESH. In the turbulent times of the Judges, He became JEHOVAH-SHALOM, the Lord our Peace. To David, the Shepherd-King, He revealed Himself as JEHOVAH-ROHI, the Lord my Shepherd. And, as the Omnipresent God, whose kingdom rules over all, God is JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH: “the Lord is there”.
At the time of Jeremiah the prophet, chosen to proclaim the “swan song” of the Judean Kingdom, God fittingly revealed Himself under the title: JEHOVAH-TDISKENU, the Lord our Righteousness. This divine designation was eminently appropriate during the time when the fruits of religious and governmental unrighteousness had come to the full. But it was also a comforting, reassuring prospective name that guaranteed the availability of salvation for all mankind. To underscore the complete disparity between the awkward attempts of humans to attain or establish righteousness and the only One who is not merely called, but who is thoroughly and uniquely righteous, God intervened in the last days of the Kingdom to stage a special, highly significant scenario. Mattaniah, a relative of the godly King Josiah came to the throne. Unlike his pious and obedient predecessor, this ruler was a rebel at heart. He defied both the dictates of God and of his conquerors. One of the last earthly kings in the line of David, Mattaniah became a mere puppet in the hands of the Babylonian overlords. Ironically, it was the infamous Nebuchadnezzar who changed Mattaniah’s name (gift of Jehovah) to Zedekiah, which means “the righteousness of Jehovah”! This not so subtle name-change was both a rebuke to in ingrained wickedness of shallow, professing believers and, yet, a promise of true righteousness for all those willing to repent and submit to God’s plan of salvation.
With the advent of the New Covenant we now know that believing in Zedekiah’s successor, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ makes godly righteousness available to all who will appoint Him King of their hearts, minds and bodies. As 1 Cor. 1:30 states: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and RIGHTEOUSNESS, and sanctification and redemption.” Our inviting the Holy Spirit to show us how to acknowledge, accept and apply His atonement for our sins secures the way for us to partake of God’s own righteousness. Our personal identification with the sufferings, death, resurrection and ascension of our merciful Savior fills us with His divine life and limitless love “which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom. 5:5).
Commenting on Rom. 3:10-12: “There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no not one”, Dr. Scofield, author of the renowned Scofield Reference Bible, in his excellent monograph, “RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH”, makes the following points: “God does not say that none of the unregenerate (people not yet “born-again”) are refined, or cultured, or able, or sweet-tempered, or generous, or charitable, or religious even, but He does say that none are righteous, none understand God, or seek after Him. It is one of the sorest of faith’s trials to accept the divine estimate of human nature. To realize that our genial and moral friends, who not infrequently are scrupulous in the discharge of every duty, who are filled with sympathy for the woes and the aspirations of humanity, and strenuous in the assertion of human rights; are yet utter contemners of God’s rights, and untouched by the sacrifice of His Son, whose divinity they contemptuously reject. A refined and gently lady who would shrink with horror from the coarseness of giving a fellow-creature the lie, will yet make God a liar every day! (See 1 John 1:10; 5:19). And this difficulty is vastly increased for thousands by the current pulpit laudation of humanity.
The false and deceptive gospel of both religious and secular humanism has always affirmed the basic goodness of mankind. Good intentions, sincere efforts preferably augmented by religious rituals, they claim, are more than enough to prove man’s innate rectitude. But true believers side against themselves and agree with God’s Holy word combined with the convicting power of the Holy Ghost. When submitted to, God’s Agent of true righteousness convinces all mankind of sin – not just the evil that we do, but more so the evil which we are. The Spirit of God makes clear the availability of genuine righteousness through receiving the salvation won by the Lord Jesus. And this same Holy Spirit assures us that the ruler of this world has already been judged. The baneful effects of Satan, sin and even of self have all been effectively nullified by the Savior’s Cross and His atoning blood!
During this earthly sojourn there can be no real righteousness apart from being “in Christ”. Aligned with Him and His saving work, we are supernaturally capable of enjoying all the precious promises and the spiritual benefits assured us in the Scriptures. And His Holy Word not only defines who we are “in Him”, but also what we will become. The unstable King Zedekiah, mentioned earlier, underwent a significant name-change. To staunch, unwavering believers with Philadelphian faith, the righteous Lord promises: “I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and mine own new name” (Rev. 3:12). Scripturally speaking, one’s name signifies one’s nature; what you are called is essentially what you actually are. Philadelphia believers who “keep the word of his patience” are promised nothing less than a divine position; a divine place; and a divine personality. Faithful Philadelphians can even now affirm: “Jehovah hath brought forth our righteousness: come and let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God”. Jer. 51:10
“Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.”
We believe our mission is very much like this commission given by Christ. While we are writing of the “advent” of a new intense belief in the Philadelphia faith we recognize that we are bringing forth many old, established truths - we hope with a new vigor of faith.