The subject of righteousness is the central theme of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Yet many Christians find it to be a difficult concept to fully understand or explain. Beliefs run the gamut from a religion of righteousness by works and behavior in order to please God and merit salvation, to the opposite extreme of believing that the righteousness of Christ covers our unrighteousness, and that we will sin until Jesus comes and changes our nature. But what we believe about this subject is a life-and-death matter, for when Jesus closes His work in the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, every person will have become a finished product of what they have believed, and there will be no more chance to receive pardon and cleansing from sin.