To be different - righteous

Christianity issues a challenge in the world to be righteous. To be righteous is to be set apart. Simply we are to be different than the world.

You see if we are different than the world we must first have a way in which to be different. This is what we find in the bible. Second we must understand the world in which we are in.

Also we must understand that often part of being righteous is to be skeptical of the teaching of Christians and the church. You see other Christians and the church are blessings from God, but they error.

Our brother in Jesus is a blessing to us but he is a sinner as we are and blind as we are blind. Often he is blind in different ways be we all see through a glass darkly.

We are all on the journey together and need to realize that our brother in his moment of giving wisdom may be more lost than we are in our state of needing wisdom.

Relation of Tenderness and Severity

Today in the Church (at least in the USA) there is a great tendency toward displaying the elements of Jesus’ life which are gentile, kind, and tender. The Church has created a false Jesus who never existed, not because Jesus was not exemplary of these traits, but because Jesus was far more than these things.

The great error in the modern church is to fail to see the Jesus who confronted evil in his day with difficult and harsh (but true) statements. One scene never preached on in the modern day is Jesus driving those defiling the temple away with whips.

Of course the Jesus in the New Testament should not surprise us since the old testament revelation had always portrayed God’s righteous anger against sin.

Maybe the issue the Church faces today is that it has lost the idea that there is an anger which is righteous. The two it seems in the church are held antithetically at all times.

The bible speaks very harshly against most anger, but there is anger which comes from faith. The anger from faith acts in a way to protect the downtrodden and lost in the world. The church today has not come to terms with Jesus since it has failed to understand the complexity of human emotion.

Since the church has lost the concept of the wrath of God against evil. It is not surprising that it is also struggling with the Bible's very clear teaching on heaven and hell.

John Piper Quote on the Righteousness of God

A bit from John Piper:

But the same is true for God. How shall God not insult what is infinitely beautiful and and glorious? How shall God not commit idolatry? There is only one possible answer: God must love and delight in his own beauty and perfection above all things. For us to do this in front of the mirror is the essence of vanity; for God to do it in front of his Son is the essence of righteousness. Isn't the essence of righteousness to be moved by perfect delight in what is perfectly glorious? And isn't the opposite of righteousness when we set our highest affections on the things of little or no worth?

And so the righteousness of God is the infinite zeal and joy and pleasure that he has in his own worth and glory. And if he were to ever act contrary to this eternal passion for his own perfections he would be unrighteous, he would be an idolater.

Answering the Question: "If all our actions are to some degree sinful then why should we even try for righteousness?"

A response I have made to a good question about what I wrote. Basically the point in question is if all our actions are to some degree sinful then why should we even try for righteousness and why shouldn't we be hopeless. The answer to this is the doctrine of Justification by faith alone apart from works of the law.

Well the reason is that there are degrees of success and failure. The Calvinist, well at least anyone who actually knows some theology, will say that even man's best actions are flawed.

Take for example John Calvin's prayer: "We are poor sinners conceived and born in iniquity. Prone to do evil, incapable of any good. And in our depravity we transgress Gods holy commandments without end or ceasing."

You would be quite wrong in thinking that Calvin would feel a need to lay down and give up. He cannot keep the law for one second! That's the point: he has to put his faith in Christ he has nothing in his credit to show to God. Love is the only correct response to such a free gift from God. Thus the Christian life will be one of loving God and brokenhearted humility that God chose me while I had no good actions no not one to my credit. But, the point is that we have Christ's righteousness in our account, no sin credited to our name.

Romans 3:10-12:

As it is written, "None is righteous, no, not one;
No one understands;
No one seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become worthless.

We have nothing to give to God and nothing to commend ourselves to him. Because of his gracious gift to us while we had absolutely nothing to merit it our hearts turn in love to him. The question you ask though is why we shouldn't give up since all our actions are flawed. Well God calls us to the task of following his commands and if he calls us to an impossible task because we love him we should do it. The Calvinists sees degrees of success and failure. Sincere heartfelt prayers are truly pleasing to God despite their falseness. As Jesus puts it: "if you love me you will do what I command." Doing what he commands of course has no effect on our salvation, because we have Christ's righteousness in us and no sin to our account. God in the bible is often written about as looking upon his servants with favor. This does not negate in the least the fact of the fact all these men's actions are fallen. Calvinism is often misunderstood because people will say that if we are saved by faith alone why not go on sinning? We reply, no we shall not go on sinning that Grace may abound. (Paul had to deal with this one, in Romans 6 maybe that is a good place to look for your answer.) Basically a life where one rests in the comfort of "I believe in God and am thus saved" and has no sign of works in their lives is suspect. See my entry on June 2 because that is what that entry is about. Basically for the Calvinist our great depravity is not to be something to discourage our effort, but it is always used to magnify the intensity of God's glory.