Remember Jesus, who has loved righteousness

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness Hebrews 1:9a, quoting Psalm 45:7 

Jesus, who is like God and is God, is holy. His righteousness is pure. His right standing with God becomes our right standing with God. We were too vile to come near a holy God, so Christ gave us His clean slate, because no blemish is too small - God requires perfection, because He is perfectly righteous.

Isaiah gives this as a description of a righteous man -

He who walk righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil; he will dwell on the heights, his place of defense will be the fortress of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure. Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty, they will see a land that stretches afar. Isaiah 33:15-17

This is what Jesus loves. It's an obedience to God's statutes and a right seeing of the King.

Often, our love for righteousness becomes legalism, or self-righteouness. In reality, righteousness is a full leaning on Him who is our righteousness and serving Him, because He has set us free from the law of sin and death. Christ's love for righteousness is a love for His Father and those He has been given.

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. John 14:21

And following the good news that we will be loved by our Saviour and our Father because of Christ's perfect obedience, is the fact that we are being made into that righteousness that He loves so well.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 

Thank You, Jesus, for so dearly loving righteousness for us!