On Righteousness

We were watching a show today that used the word righteous out of Biblical context.  My daughter recognized it and immediately responded with the correct definition, which led to a wonderful gospel conversation on the couch.

Child: Mama what's the opposite of righteous?
Me: Unrighteous.  Who was the one righteous person in all of history?
Child: Jesus!
Me: That's right.  God's word tells us no one is righteous, not even one.  Who was the most unrighteous person in all of history?
Child: Satan.
Me:  Exactly.  Satan is everything bad and God is everything good.
Child: And we're exacty in the middle, right?
Me: Oh baby, sadly we're much closer to Satan than we ever will be to God in this life.  God is SO holy and because of the fall everything we do is colored by our sin.  Even the good things we do, we don't do for the right reasons apart from God's spirit.
Child: But my sibling did the nicest thing ever earlier today!  It was SO nice!
Me:  I know.  But they did it for selfish reasons.  Even the good things we do, we do for the wrong reasons- because it makes us feel good or because we're afraid of the consequences. It's only when God gives us a new heart to love Jesus that we can start to do things out of love, because we are SO thankful that while we were still sinners Jesus died on the cross for us.  We won't be able to be purely selfless until we go to be with Jesus or until Jesus comes back.  Doesn't it make you long for heaven when Jesus will make all things right again?  Let's pray Jesus would come quickly, and that he would change all my children's hearts to begin to love him.

Verses being referenced:

"But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8

"As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one.""

Romans 3:10