Why do we need God’s righteousness?
Why does Christianity stand apart all other religions – whose goal is to
earn favor with whatever deity they have established – in that God claims to
give us his righteousness instead of us working towards righteousness? Didn’t God give us the law? Don’t we have the
10 commandments to obey? More
importantly, why does it even matter?
After all, God is love is he not?
He is a God of forgiveness, slow to anger and pouring out mercy.
Unfortunately, there is an aspect to God’s character that we often
forget about. We read about it in verses
like these.
“Now I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against
you, and judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your
abominations. And my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. I will punish
you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you
will know that I am the Lord, who strikes.” Ez 7:8-9 (ESV)
“I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their
iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the
pompous pride of the ruthless.” Is 13:11 (ESV)
“Behold, the
days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are
circumcised merely in the flesh—“ Jer 9:25 (ESV)
“For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and his chariots like the
whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by
fire will the Lord enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and
those slain by the Lord shall be many.” Is 66:15-16
These are some fairly scary verses about God – and there are many like
them in scripture. In reading them, we do
not conjure up pictures of a loving and doting grandfather. Instead, we imagine a mighty warrior yielding
lightning – ready to strike. If we take
them seriously, then we can begin to understand the proverb that says “the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
The truth is… God will pour out his wrath.
God will pour out his wrath on the unrighteous. In Romans 1:19-20, Paul tells us how God has
revealed himself to us so that we are without excuse. We can make excuses, but even the person who
has never crossed the threshold into a church or heard the name of Jesus knows
God. Yes, even the staunchest atheist knows
God, but rejects him so soundly that he fights tooth and nail to stamp out his
very existence – and therein lays our problem.
Man has chosen to reject God outright.
Romans 1:21 tells us that first and foremost, man refuses to give God
glory. Instead, in Romans 1:22-23, we
find that man has exchanged God’s glory for man-made things. We have created gods of our own creation – in
our own likeness. God does not have a
preeminent place in our lives anymore.
That place of godhead is often filled by other things such as wealth,
power, even family. Yes, even the atheist
has a god – his science and his reason.
Man has proven time and time again that his desire is to forsake God
and pursue his own selfish pleasures. So in his wrath, God has given man
exactly what he desires. How does this
demonstrate God’s wrath? Because in so
doing, man is no longer under God’s protection nor is he under God’s loving,
caring, divine influence. By pursuing
his own desires, man is actually leading himself down the path of destruction. As such, beginning in Romans 1:24 we find
that God has given him over to his sexual desires, then given him over to
sexual perversions, then finally given him over to perverse thinking so that he
no longer distinguishes good from evil. At
the end of the day, Rom 1:32 reminds us that man knows to do right, but chooses
to do wrong. For this, God will bring
forth his destructive wrath – both here on earth and for all eternity in Hell.
Of course you may be thinking: “That’s great, but that is not me. I am a good person. I keep the 10 commandments (to the best of my
ability). I do good things. Sure, I’m not perfect – nobody is – but my
ledger is clearly in the black. I
certainly have not reached the point of utter depravity you mention here. I know the difference between right and wrong
and, generally, choose the right.”
Unfortunately, while it may offend your human sense of fair play, God
has made it clear that not only will he pour out his wrath on the unrighteous,
but he will also pour out his wrath on those who consider themselves “righteous.” You see, in Romans 2:1, we find out that
those of us who claim to be “righteous” do the same things as the
unrighteous. When you think about it,
you have to admit it is true. You
believe in God. You may even choose to
follow God. But when it comes down to
it, most of the time you are more concerned with yourself than you are with
God. And if you really think about the
10 commandments, you will have to admit that you have broken far more of them
than you want to admit – especially if you consider Jesus’ interpretation of
them in the Sermon on the Mount of Matthew 5-7! The fact is, we are ALL lawbreakers (Romans
2:21-22).
Actually, the lawbreaking for those of us who claim to be “righteous”
may actually be worse than those who open reject God. Romans 2:23 says that we dishonor God when we
claim to follow him and yet still break his commands. Romans 2:24 says that as a result, the world
blasphemes God. Yes, it is true – some people
will reject God because of you and me. They
will look at us, see how we claim to be righteous, see how we really are no
more righteous than they are, will call us hypocrites, and then will turn and
walk away. We are in just as bad a
condition as the “unrighteous.”
God will pour out his wrath on ALL men.
We are ALL under the curse of sin (Romans 3:9) because there is truly
none who are righteous in God’s eyes (Romans 3:10-18). We may do everything we can to be “righteous”
but the conclusion is this: we can never be righteous enough!
THANKFULLY, there is a solution.
Thankfully, we do not have to depend upon our own righteousness because
God has made a way for us to receive HIS righteousness. Romans 3:21-22 says:
“BUT NOW the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from
the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” (NIV)
[emphasis added]
BUT NOW… perhaps the two greatest words in the bible. All the evil… all the unrighteousness… all
the failed attempts to appease God… all the useless religiousity… are wiped
away by those two beautiful words.
Nothing I could do could bring me righteousness, BUT NOW God gives me his
righteousness.
Of course, those two words still do not negate God’s wrath. God’s righteousness is not just freely given to everyone. To begin with, it is only available to those who place their faith in Jesus Christ. Those who still actively and openly reject God will still experience the full force of God’s wrath.
Even for those who choose to receive Christ by faith, God’s wrath is
still manifest. In reality, no one has been truly spared from God’s wrath. It is just that for some, God’s wrath was not
poured out on them, but on their substitute, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ received the full force of God’s wrath for my sins – and for
yours. It is not in God’s nature to leave sin unpunished. That is why the cross of Jesus Christ is a
demonstration of both LOVE and JUSTICE.
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.” Rom 5:8 (ESV)
God is love… and the death of Jesus Christ on the cross – as a
substitute for the wrath we deserve – is a demonstration of that love. But that sacrifice was also a demonstration
of his justice:
“Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward
as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's
righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former
sins.” Rom 3:24-25
A just God cannot just overlook those sins. They MUST be punished. That punishment was
simply poured out on Jesus Christ instead of us.
How can a loving God also be a just God? Those two concepts seem irreconcilable to man
– but not to God. By pouring out his
wrath on Jesus Christ as a substitutionary sacrifice, God could give us his
righteousness and so forego pouring out his wrath on us. It is a perfect demonstration of love and
justice. Ultimately, THAT is why we need God’s
righteousness.
No comments:
Post a Comment