Featured Those practicing righteousness are the righteous!

I agree.
Now, why do they practice righteousness, when the world around them couldn't care less, for the most part?

Why are they righteous, Samuels?

What is it that God looks upon in order to gauge that righteousness?
The fact that there is none righteous, no not one ( Romans 3:10-11 ), should give you a starting point for that answer, my friend.

See also Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:23, Jeremiah 13:23 and many others.

 

There's your "why".
Because they are born again.

There's your "why not".
Because they are not born again.

Speaking of Christ's righteousness:

" Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." ( 1 John 3:7-10 ).

" For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one [judgment came] upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one [the free gift came] upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. " ( Romans 5:17-19 ).


God made them righteous.
It's a gift that cannot be earned...

It has to be given.

 

Exactly.
Now, why do they work righteousness?

" But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." ( John 3:21 ).

Because those works originate with God.
Outside of His grace and mercy, no one would work true righteousness.
Outside of the power of His Spirit and the work of making people born again, no one would truly desire to be righteous;
and outside the blood of His Son, no one would be declared righteous before the Lord.

Again, God makes people righteous...we do not earn our salvation by our works, neither do we keep it by our works.
It is God that justifies ( Romans 8:33 ), not our works.
it is Christ's blood that justifies ( Romans 5:9 ), not our faith.

Faith is a gift ( Ephesians 2:8 ) authored and finished by Jesus Christ ( Hebrews 12:2 ) and is the evidence of His work in us as believers ( Hebrews 11:1 ).
It is not the means of salvation and never has been.

In addition, good works are only the evidence that we are justified...
They do not determine who God saves, they are a reflection of who God has saved.

See the book of James.

Amen.
Now, according to the Scriptures, why are they righteous?

" For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." ( 2 Corinthians 5:21 ).

Again, because God made them righteous by imputing the righteousness of His Son to them ( Romans 4, Isaiah 61:10, 1 Corinthians 1:30 ).

 

And the only one who is a righteous man is Christ Jesus. Thus the Bible says:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
~ Ephesians 2:4-22

We are found righteous by being found in Christ. If we are not in Christ, all our self-righteousness is as filthy rags.

 

I do believe it, Samuels.
Now, do you believe this?

" But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
6 which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
7 that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." ( Titus 3:4-7 ).

 

Agreed.
I see this in the passage above.

No it is not...
it is by God's power that they are both saved and kept saved:

" Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." ( 1 Peter 1:3-5 ).

The Pharisees made the same mistake that it appears that you're making...
Thinking that their obedience to His commands is what God looks upon to grant them His favor;

He doesn't.
He looks upon a heart that He has made pure by His own gracious work.
If anyone is saved, it is by His grace and mercy ( Romans 9:14-24 ) and His deciding to show that mercy and grace...
Not our efforts at trying to gain His favor by our acts of obedience.


Eternal life is a gift ( Romans 6:23 ), my friend, not a reward for good behavior.

 

When the relationship between us and God changes to family 1 John 3:1 you are completely family. You are not becoming family, you just are.
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
We try to please our Father but when we don't we have Jesus
1 John 2:1
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.


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What verses are you referring to? Do you believe you can get your salvation back after you lose it or is it game over?


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What part would that be?
Being the recipients of a gift, Samuels?

That is the only part that I know of that we as God's children play...
having eternal life dropped on us out of nowhere.

Again, it is a gift, not a reward.
It cannot be merited, for that would make the Lord a debtor...

And He will not owe men anything that He has not specifically promised to them.

In addition, if He regarded anything that we as sinful men do in order to gain His favor, that would constitute works ( Romans 11:5-6 ).
That's why salvation is by grace through faith...
Not of works, lest any man should boast ( Ephesians 2:8-9 ).

What I do doesn't make any difference.
What God does in and through me makes all the difference.

My righteousness was given to me by God through Jesus Christ;
I don't "maintain" it by living righteously.

I live righteously because the Lord not only commands it, but because I love Him enough to do it.
However, there's the matter of the sinful flesh to deal with ( Romans 7:14-25, Galatians 5:17 ), which takes the power of the Spirit in order to "mortify" ( or put to death, see Romans 8:12-13 ) the deeds of the body.

 

But according to His word, God's gifts and calling are without repentance ( taking them back, see Romans 11:29 ).

Therefore, He will not take back the gift of eternal life,
neither will He cast me out for sins that are already forgiven.

All my sins were forgiven at the cross ( Colossians 2:13-14 ), Samuels.
How can a believer possibly lose their salvation over sins that God no longer remembers?

He tells me that He has removed them from Him as far as east is from west ( Psalms 103:12 ).
Nothing that I will ever do can remove me from the hand of my Father ( John 10:28-29 ).

That is what forgiveness is all about.

I'm sorry, sir, but I disagree.
I see nothing in the Bible that declares that a blood-bought child of the living God will ever lose their gift of eternal life.

Rather, just the opposite...
Nothing will separate His elect from the love of God ( Romans 8:28-39 ).

There's no need to, sir.
I've had my own Bible for over 43 years now, and I am quite confident that it does not teach loss of salvation.


May God bless you in your studies.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Your righteousness will not get you in the gate... God the Father looks through his Son Jesus Christ who is your righteousness and imputes his righteousness to you... Your righteousness couldn't save a flea!... Brother Glen