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1 Peter 3:8–4:11

12/1/2012

 
Click here to read today’s passage on Bible Gateway.

The Righteous Man
It’s kind of tangential to our reading today, but I wanted to take a minute to talk about being righteous (see 3:12 in our reading).  There’s a lot in the passage other than this, so if you have any questions, make sure to ask.  Michael Kruger wrote a post last spring that I think is very important, titled “Is Anyone More Holy Than Anyone Else? The Missing Category of the ‘Righteous Man’".  To summarize, it talks about our tendency as Christians to have a difficult time taking a middle position on things that the Bible does.  We either seek total self-righteousness for salvation, or totally eschew seeking righteousness because of grace.  Here are some excerpts:

"“No one is more holy than anyone else.”   That was the statement I heard in a recent sermon.  At first, I thought I must have misheard it.  But, I had not.  The point being made to the congregation was clear: abandon your ‘self-righteousness’ and recognize that you are no holier than the person in the pew next to you.

Now, statements like that sound compelling at first.  Humble, even.  After all, we are trained to go after those Pharisees among us (usually defined as anyone who appears to be holier than we are!).  Moreover, we have the reformed doctrine of total depravity entrenched in our minds, reminding us that our hearts are wicked beyond what we can imagine.   And, above all this, surely Christ is most glorified when we acknowledge that no one is more holy than anyone else.  Right?

Well, not really. Although the Bible certainly condemns self-righteousness, and while we are certainly much more sinful than we ever could realize, there is something missing here.  What is missing—ironically in many reformed circles—is the clear biblical category of the “righteous man.”...

...So, what exactly is a “righteous” person?  Surely we cannot suggest that all these passages are simply referring to the imputed righteousness of Christ (as important as that is). No, it appears the Bible uses this category of the “righteous man” for believers who display a marked consistency and faithfulness in walking with God. Of course, this doesn’t mean these people are perfect, sinless, or able to merit their own salvation. It simply means that the Spirit is at work in such a way that they bear steady fruit in their lives.

If so, then it is simply untrue to say “no one is more holy than anyone else.”  Not everyone is equally sanctified.  Some are farther along than others by God’s wonderful grace.  Now, I am sure the pastor that I heard would agree with that.  Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I am sure he was only trying to say that when it comes to our justification no one is able to stand on their own righteousness: all are desperately in need of grace.  No doubt, in his zeal to make this very good biblical point, he stepped too far and declared that “no one is more holy than anyone else.”...

...[Reason #2 for this probelm:]
Seeing Pharisaism as the only serious sin.  In recent years, there seems to have been a renewed focus in reformed circles on the problem of legalism.  And the motivations for this are often good: legalism is a real threat to the integrity of the gospel message.  However, the problem is that if Pharisaism is the only enemy we see, then we can become imbalanced in our message and ministry. If our number one goal is to defeat legalism, then our number one point is always to remind people of how sinful they really are. If someone seems to be living a holy life they tend to be looked at suspiciously—after all, we know that no one can really be holy so therefore this person must be putting up a front; they are not being “real” about their sin.  Put simply, in order to weed out Pharisaism our sinfulness is over-emphasized and our progress in holiness is under-emphasized." [1] (click the footnote to read the whole post - it's not too long)

I think this is an EXTREMELY important discussion.  He mentions "reformed" circles a lot, but it's definitely not limited to them.  It seems that in our zeal for the Gospel/grace we have neglected to truly seek God and understand that we can both find Him and truly glorify Him.  Our sin is there, but it no longer owns us.  We CAN be righteous (not for salvation, but in life) if we care to seek and desire to be so.

And I think that's the root of the problem - we don't desire it and we cover up that lack of desire with theologizing.  Grace is vital, but we cannot use it as an excuse for laziness.

Questions?  Comments?

[1] http://michaeljkruger.com/is-anyone-more-holy-than-anyone-else-the-missing-category-of-the-righteous-man/
Andrei
12/1/2012 05:45:03 pm

Wow... that's so mind blowing. We hear things like 'no one is holier than anyone else' so many times. I guess one of the main points with this is we have to stick to what is truly biblical and not simply an idea that is taken for granted in the church?

I had a question though... if we acknowledge that some people are more 'righteous' or 'sanctified' than others, doesn't that effectively mean that they are 'better' than the next person? It seems almost impossible to separate the connotation of 'higher' or 'better' from adjectives like 'righteous' or 'holy'... Even if we acknowledge that some are more sanctified than others within the context and acknowledgement of grace, it seems kind of problematic... ?

greg
12/4/2012 02:41:17 am

I don't think it's a problem. Remember that positionally before God, we're all the same. None of us through righteousness or holiness can earn anything from God. That being said, we MUST acknowledge that some people have experienced more of God or we would have NOTHING to learn from each other. There is much to learn from older godly people, and I think one of the greatest shames of this type of thinking is that it causes us to stop seeking direction from experienced believers because they are "just the same as us".

The problem only comes when we compare and covet. Someone might be "more righteous" than us, but that definitely doesn't mean "higher". This isn't a contest. Those that seek God and His righteousness find it. If we don't seek it, can we really be jealous of those that sought it and found it? This is not righteousness that leads to salvation, so it is not problematic when thinking of grace. This has to do with a knowledge of and experience with God.

Kevin Kuo
12/4/2012 03:30:32 am

So here is a question what happens when someone starts to assert themselves as being at a higher spiritual level than others? Does having a degree in Divinity or other Biblical disciplines indicate a measure of spiritual maturity? What happens when this type of behavior permeates into the leadership of the church?

I believe there are righteous people, but who but God alone can actually say that they are. Unless the measure for us observers is by the fruit that they bear. I think its important to note that one may be free of the usual sins we so commonly try to avoid however what happens when you appear so righteous that sinful people are afraid to commune with you for fear of judgement. Jesus was quite the opposite he was entirely righteous but the sinners all flocked to him. I think that is a good measure of righteousness. Where there is no enmity between the sinner and the righteous. Righteous behavior manifests in the pursuit of restoration it does not dwell in condemnation and judgement.

greg
12/4/2012 04:21:22 am

I don't think anyone would deny that this has been abused in just the way that you speak about here, but there is a danger in throwing the baby out with the bathwater. This has definitely been abused to hold captive people, I would say particularly in fundamentalist circles that tend to elevate their pastors in very unhealthy ways. It seems that even on the blog the tendency is to associate righteousness with power and comparison. Righteousness is about knowing God and being changed by him.

The danger is being so afraid of abusing "righteousness" that one fails to seek it because, after all, "we're all the same in God's eyes", right? We shouldn't and can't allow fear to dominate our pursuit of God. I'm not sure why it is, but it seems like everyone is always trying to have more fruit than someone else or is depressed that they don't have as much fruit as someone else, as if knowing God was a contest rather than being about KNOWING GOD. It's a little frustrating to tell the truth. True righteousness is so fixated upon Jesus that it doesn't compare, positively or negatively, to others.


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