What does it mean to trust God’s righteousness over your own?
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Steve Cuss, in his book The Expectation Gap, states:
Another way to say “relax into God’s presence” might be “trust God’s righteousness over my own.” The word righteousness appears throughout the New Testament, but we often limit its meaning to what Jesus did on the cross. I find it much more helpful to consider righteousness in my daily reality, not just in a past event. Righteousness is “New Testament shalom,” so when I read about righteousness in Scripture, I think “wellness.” Where do I look for my righteousness? What do I depend on to be well?
When I forget the Lord, I have moved into a self-righteousness. Self-righteousness can come across as if I think I am better than others, which is perhaps the most common understanding of it. But as we discussed in chapter 5, some self-righteous people go the other way. They are full of themselves, but their self-righteousness is expressed through either self-pity or self-condemnation. They don’t think too highly of themselves; they think too lowly. But they still depend on their self for what is true and right. Arrogance can certainly be self-righteousness, but so can insecurity. As we explored when we looked into our inner critics, many of us struggle to relax into God because we believe ourselves over God. That is a form of well-meaning self-righteousness. We cannot be in shalom when we depend on self.
