Faith and Righteousness 

The kind of righteousness that Jesus fostered in his apostles and followers is a righteousness born in the faith of the sincere child of God. And this is the faith that earns the believer entrance into the kingdom of heaven. The heavenly Father accepts our gift of faith by offering his forgiveness. But receiving this act of forgiveness by the Father is a distinct experience that involves four steps which are the steps of inner righteousness:

1. One can only personally experience the Father's forgiveness in equal measure to how well one forgives their fellow human beings.
2. We cannot truly forgive others unless and until we love them as we love ourselves.
3. Loving one another is an example of the highest ethics.
4. True righteousness, or moral conduct, is the natural outcome of such love for others.

Understanding and actually taking these steps naturally leads to the desire to serve one another in loving ways. This desire becomes the motivation for our way of living because finding God for ourselves and the consciousness of being part of the kingdom of heaven are experiences that cannot be contained and held alone. One finds that through such an experience, enlarging the kingdom through the outward and loving service of one’s fellows becomes an overriding desire of life. This love and service is indicative of the family nature of the kingdom, wherein all of our brothers and sisters are part of the family of God along with us.

Jesus said: "You cannot buy salvation; you cannot earn righteousness. Salvation is the gift of God, and righteousness is the natural fruit of the spirit-born life of sonship in the kingdom. You are not to be saved because you live a righteous life; rather, is it that you live a righteous life because you have already been saved, have recognized sonship as the gift of God and service in the kingdom as the supreme delight of life on earth. When men believe this gospel, which is a revelation of the goodness of God, they will be led to voluntary repentance of all known sin. The realization of sonship is incompatible with the desire to sin. Kingdom believers hunger for righteousness and thirst for divine perfection."

Jesus taught that the kingdom is within; even though the experience of living the religion of the kingdom is personal to each believer, the results of such a life are exhibited in loving relations with others. Our righteous behavior is the way we unfold our moral nature in relation to others. This kind of inner-motivated righteousness is very different from simply obeying the precepts of established religions that teach us to love one another. In the kingdom, our motivations come from within and are the result of our faith-acceptance – and our inner experience – of being part of that kingdom of heaven.

Humanity has not yet learned to practice the principles of the gospel of the kingdom as Jesus taught them. But when these principles are finally recognized and realized on a global scale, they will transform the world.