Jehovah-Tsidkenu: The LORD Our Righteousness

Jehovah-Tsidkenu is one of the great names of God revealed in the Old Testament, and it means "the LORD our righteousness." This name appears in Jeremiah 23:6, where the prophet announces the promised Messiah: "In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." This prophetic word anticipates the work of Christ, who became our righteousness through his perfect life and his atoning death. The righteousness we need to be reconciled to God does not come from ourselves or from our efforts, but from God alone, who gives it to us in his Son. 2 Corinthians 5:21 declares it with great force: "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." Christ bore our guilt in order to clothe us with his own righteousness. In the same way, 1 Corinthians 1:30 affirms that Jesus Christ "is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." In him is found the perfect righteousness that no human effort could ever produce. To confess Christ as Jehovah-Tsidkenu is to acknowledge that our only hope of righteousness is the one he imputes to us by faith, and not one we might try to earn. These verses invite us to rest entirely upon the righteousness that God grants us freely in Jesus Christ, the LORD our righteousness.