Righteousness - Doing the Right things Rightly

We are not saved by our righteousness. It’s a good thing, because we do a lot of wrong things, or perhaps a lot of right things wrongly. No, we are saved, first and primarily, not by our righteousness but by Christ’s righteousness. By faith in Him, He gives to us what we could not accomplish ourselves, and then, and only then, we seek to follow Him righteously - that is, doing the right things rightly. But what are the right things?

Some would go to the Ten Commandments, but I’m not sure whether we get the depth of it all, right from the beginning: “no other gods before Me.” It also ends with a tough demand: “you shall not covet.” Those are right things, and big things. If we find the Decalogue inconvenient, where do we go next? The short form these days seems to be “Love God, love neighbor.” Good direction, but short on the detail. What does it entail?

I would like to suggest two passages from the Bible that seem to outline the proper direction, one from the Old Testament, and one from the New. The first is from the prophet Micah, chapter 6 and verse 8. The first line answers the question we are asking:
He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?
(Micah 6:8 NAS95)

To “do justice” does not mean just to talk about it. It does not say to fix things in places where you have no influence. Where you live, in your setting, with people around you, do justice. This would naturally point you to “hard luck” cases and the disadvantaged. It leads to the second element, which is to love kindness. This translation, “kindness,” is very weak. It speaks of covenant love and loyalty. Love those to whom you are bound, your family, your church family, your community. And yes, be kind. And in all of this, you walk in the shadow of God’s presence and grace, not making a name for yourself, but giving glory to Him. That’s a start in doing the right things rightly.

Jesus faced off with the Pharisees and gave them a piece of His mind, that being the mind of Christ. Here is what He said:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; (Matthew 23:23 NAS95)

It seems that the Pharisees were doing some of the right things, but wrongly. It is wrong when we focus on minor issues and neglect major issues. If you give your spouse a birthday card, good for you, but not if you are cheating on him or her. Whatever the dumb card says, it is a lie. “Justice, mercy and faithfulness” are major. It seems that this NT passage mirrors the Old: the first elements line up; mercy corresponds with the covenant love and loyalty of Micah 6:8; and faithfulness can easily hold hands with a humble walk with God. The Pharisees were certainly in a place to help people who were hurting, but instead, they were counting and weighing the spice drawer. Jesus didn’t die for the spice drawer. He died for that neglected kid down the street. The Pharisees were also very good, extremely good, at keeping track of other people’s sins. This makes them experts at passing down judgment, which is not the same things as justice, and which is the exact opposite of mercy. Those who are called children of God have received a God-sized boatload of mercy, and we should be extravagant in sharing it with others who need it, and especially those who know that they need it. And then there is faithfulness, which means, in part, do things every day, starting today. May God help us to do the right things in the right way.

Your Clock and Your Calendar

Your Clock and Your Calendar

I have this scenario in my mind that is of a cartoon nature. Moses is up on Mt. Sinai taking dictation from God. The content is the Law of God, the covenant stipulations by which Israel will be held accountable. Every word is important. But dictation in those days was difficult. Moses would have been using some kind of stone chisel on stone tablets. It had to be hard work. And so as God speaks the words of God, Moses takes dictation, and finally, in frustration, Moses says to God, “could You please slow it down a little?”

The irony of this is that we say the exact opposite to God all the time. God is working out His purposes in human history, shaping nations and individuals according to His infinite wisdom. If we were to multiply all the pleas directed heavenward, there would be many voices saying, “Could you please hurry it up?”

The point, of course, is that we are not in charge of God’s pacing. It is wrong for us to think that God, the Creator of heaven and earth, should accommodate our clocks and calendars. In fact, to a large measure, I would hold that our clocks and calendars matter little to God.

There verse in Galatians 4:4 reads: “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.” I’ve sat through calendar meetings, and I’ve heard people say of a suggested date, “That doesn’t really work for me.” Could you hear Joseph or Mary saying such a thing about the birth of Jesus? “God, this is not the ideal time for me.” But what Paul is saying in Galatians 4, among other things, is that the fullness of time is decided by God, not by you or me. How could we possibly know anything about the fullness of time or the skinniness of time? We have already forgotten the lessons of yesterday and we don’t have a clue about tomorrow. How could we possibly decide? And if that is true for the birth of Jesus, I suspect it is also true of a whole host of other things as well.

You might sit with your clock or your calendar and plan things out very carefully. You try and cover all the angles; all the contingencies. And do you know what happens? Something interrupts. God interrupts. Your calendar is soon filled with scratch marks.

Jesus said in John’s Gospel, chapter 7, “My time has not yet come.” He implies that there will be a time when His time in fact has arrived. But not yet. He seems to know something of that time. The disciples do not. God is bringing together many threads that will result in the death of the Messiah, in the fullness of time; at just the right time. The disciples are thinking about human risk factors. Jesus is thinking about eternal salvation. It will involve His death, His time.

Are there calendars written this week that have that kind of “time,” the day of one’s death, planned out? We don’t know, do we? But God does. Our clock and calendar will not reflect that major death-event in our plans, but God already knows. And, we yield to His perfect plan. We yield to it because we have no other choice.

Let me just add one more thought on top of the last. It says above, “we yield to His perfect plan.” We have being talking about God’s choice of time, but we should also think about God’s choice of Person, of His Son, Jesus, as the fulcrum of history and the source of salvation. If you really want to yield to His plan, you will keep your eraser close to your calendar, but you will also bow before His Person. Just as your calendar does not dictate to God the order or timing of events, neither do you get to choose your own savior. God has appointed only one, and His name is Jesus, and according to Scripture, the time for you to accept Him is now

- 2Cor. 6:1   And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain — 2 for He says, “AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.”
Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,” behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION” —