Righteous: The Kiss of Community

Welcome to this class on “Righteous” in our next installment in the series “A Great and Terrible Love” based on a book of the same name by Mark Galli. Greetings to each of you present, and those listening in our online community!

Jesus said to go into all the world and make disciples . . . I’ve noticed that disciples tend to ask questions. Martin Luther asked a lot of questions, even as one who daily lectured and preached the Bible. One thing he kept asking was: how could he find a gracious God. He knew the righteousness, justice and terrors of a God of wrath, but not his love, mercy and grace. While preparing messages on Romans and Psalms, God’s light dawned on Luther that people are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, apart from any human effort or works. Reflecting on this, he said, “I labored diligently and anxiously as to how to understand Paul’s words in Romans 1:17 where he says, ‘In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed . . .’ I saw the difference, that law is one thing and gospel another. I broke through, and as I had formerly hated the expression ‘the righteousness of God,’ I now began to regard it as my dearest and most comforting word . . .”

So, what exactly is “the righteousness of God”? What does it mean for us that God has the attribute of “righteous?” There are many Scriptures that contain the word “righteous”, and we’ll look at some of those in a minute. Suffice to say that the term “righteous” can seem confusing.

Righteousness is defined in wikipedia as an attribute that implies that a person’s actions are justified, and can have the connotation that the person has been “judged” or “reckoned” as leading a life that is pleasing to God. William Tyndale, Bible translator, remodelled the word “righteous” after an earlier word rihtwis, or “rightways.” He used it to translate the Hebrew root tzedek, which appears more than 500 times in the OT, and the Greek word dikaios, which appears more than 200 times in the NT.

What are we to think? What do you think about when you hear words like “righteous” or “righteousness” or “righteously”? Maybe we don’t hate those words as Luther did, but I don’t think we exactly love them either. I think when we hear the word righteous in referring to a person, we mentally think “self-righteous.” That’s one reason that even though it may be accurate to describe someone as righteous, we wouldn’t likely call them that. It probably wouldn’t be received as a compliment. It’s a word that’s usually reserved for the worst kinds of religious people! So again, why would God want to be associated with such a term? And why would he want to associate that kind of term with us?

To gain a fuller understanding, let’s journey back to the original setting of the word “righteousness.” God chose a group, one nation, to be His own people. He made a covenant, a formal agreement, with the people of Israel. He went into great detail as to what that covenant entailed, with privileges and responsibilities – we find these in the Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible. In this original setting, in the context of God’s covenant with His people, righteousness refers to the larger sense that an entire people (and not just an individual) can have right standing before God, the Author of the covenant law.

We can see this most easily in Moses’ famous speech in Deuteronomy 6:17-25 (NLT) – “You must diligently obey the commands of the Lord your God—all the laws and decrees he has given you. Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so all will go well with you. Then you will enter and occupy the good land that the Lord swore to give your ancestors. You will drive out all the enemies living in the land, just as the Lord said you would. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What is the meaning of these laws, decrees, and regulations that the Lord our God has commanded us to obey?’ “Then you must tell them, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand. The Lord did miraculous signs and wonders before our eyes, dealing terrifying blows against Egypt and Pharaoh and all his people. He brought us out of Egypt so he could give us this land he had sworn to give our ancestors. And the Lord our God commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear him so he can continue to bless us and preserve our lives, as he has done to this day. For we will be counted as righteous when we obey all the commands the Lord our God has given us.’”

I want to challenge us to approach the Bible as a member of a community, God’s people. Many of the original Greek and Hebrew nuances get lost in translation because in English we don’t distinguish between second-person singular and plural, among other things. When we see the word “you” we tend to think “you singular.” Let’s not be too hard on ourselves for our tendency to think that way. Our culture has trained us from birth to think primarily individualistically, and we are rewarded in many ways for doing so. Whatever is rewarded is usually perpetuated! Because God is righteous, and because He made a covenant with His people, and He adopted us into His family, we who have trusted in Christ are now His people, too, His family, and because of this, He has declared us righteous. God’s covenant was not with an individual alone. God’s covenant was with an entire people. Let this understanding serve as a reminder that when we see in Scripture the word “you” as referring to people, it generally means “you plural” – “y’all.” I never thought I’d start using that word when we first moved here, and now I cook greens and eat grits, too! The body of Christ cannot be dismembered into separate parts. We tend to read passages like Deuteronomy 6 as though God is telling individuals to keep the commandments personally, and while that is true at some level, it’s clear that Moses is primarily speaking about the nation here.

So it is the people of Israel who will be considered ‘righteous’ when as a people they live faithfully according to the covenant. For an individual Israelite to have said he was righteous would be like saying, “I’m a citizen of the United States.” This doesn’t mean that I’m a perfect citizen who has never broken any of the laws ever. What it does mean is that I have legal standing in the United States of America, along with rights & responsibilities. Similarly, a righteous Israelite wasn’t someone who was 100% perfect in their behavior, but someone who was counted as a member of God’s covenant community, along with rights & responsibilities.

From the community perspective, when Israel lived according to God’s covenant, then Israel was a righteous nation. It is because of His covenant that He recognized Israel as His people. On July 14^th, 2011, the United Nations added South Sudan as a new member state. In Biblical terms, South Sudan is “righteous”, i.e. it has legal standing in the international community, along with rights & responsibilities. This doesn’t mean that South Sudan or China or the United States obeys international law perfectly or that any of them has a flawless record on applying justice within their own borders. When God declared Israel righteous, he was merely recognizing the nation as His people.

On the other hand, if the covenant people decided not to accept the responsibilities of covenant life, then they stood before the Judge to endure his just sentence. The book of Isaiah opens with the consequences of keeping or breaking the covenant, and makes it clear that sacrifice and religious acts, which are one part of the covenant, would not save Israel if they ignored other parts of the covenant. The consequences of breaking the covenant are devastating. Israel stood condemned in the ultimate court of law. The people of God were no longer righteous, that is, they rejected the covenant of God. In one sense, they were no longer the people of God.

At the heart of ‘God’s righteousness’ is his covenant with Israel, the covenant through which he will address and solve the problem of evil in and for the whole world. ‘Righteousness’ is a term taken from the law court. In the biblical Jewish law court there were three parties: the judge, the plaintiff and the defendant. There were no public prosecutors; all cases took the form of one party versus the other party, with the judge deciding the issue.

What does it mean to use the language of ‘righteousness’ in this context? Let me explain this by referring to a book by contemporary theologian N. T. Wright called What Saint Paul Really Said. The language of righteousness means something quite different when applied to the judge from what it means when applied to either the plaintiff or the defendant. If we apply the term “righteous” to the judge, it has everything to do with the way he handles the case. It means that he must try the case according to the law; he must be impartial; he must punish sin as it deserves; and he must support and uphold those who are defenseless and who have no-one but him to plead their cause. For the plaintiff and the defendant, however, to be ‘righteous’ has none of these connotations, because they’re not trying the case. Neither does it mean that they are in some way morally upright and deserving to win the case. No; for the plaintiff or defendant to be ‘righteous’ in the biblical sense within the law-court setting is for them to have that status as a result of the decision of the court. If the court upholds the plaintiff’s accusation, he or she is ‘righteous.’ This doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she is good, morally upright or virtuous [my aside: which is obvious if you’ve ever watched Judge Judy or Court TV!!!] It simply means that in this case the court upholds them in the charge they have brought. The same goes for the defendant. If and when the court upholds the defendant, acquitting him or her of the charge, then he or she is ‘righteous.’ This, again, doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she is good, morally upright or virtuous; simply that he or she has, in this case, been acquitted.

The key point is that, within the technical language of the law court, ‘righteous’ means, for the plaintiff or the defendant, the status they have when the court decides in their favor. Nothing more, nothing less. . . . Righteousness is not an object, a substance or a gas which can be passed across the courtroom. N. T. Wright goes on to say very clearly that the righteousness that His people have is not God’s own righteousness. It’s important to distinguish between the righteousness of God and righteousness from God. God’s own righteousness is his covenant faithfulness, because of which he will (Israel hopes) vindicate her, and bestow upon her the status of ‘righteous’, as the vindicated or acquitted defendant.

Because righteousness is directly connected to the covenant law, it is often used as a synonym for moral goodness or for obedience to God’s law. This is likely the meaning that passes through readers minds when reading one of the many verses in the Bible that speak of righteousness. But notice Psalm 7:8 (NIV) – “. . . Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity, O Most High.” Here the psalmist is calling on God to recognize him as a member of the covenant community: “according to my righteousness” is equivalent to, “look, here’s my passport!” If you’ve traveled internationally, you have likely experienced the sharp contrast between entering a nation as a citizen and entering as an outsider. The immigration room at the airport in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, where we lived in ’08 and ’09 consisted of three lines. One was for Russian citizens traveling first class. Another was for Russian citizens traveling economy class. The third line was for non-Russian citizens. That third line was always the slowest line, and even this many years after the end of the Cold War, a tangible sense of suspicion lingers. The immigration room at Hartsfield International Airport is a totally different experience for U.S. citizens. And it’s not just because the officials here smile quite a bit! When you arrive here as a citizen, there is a definite sense of “welcome home – you are welcome – this is your home!” The Psalmist asks God to judge him according to his integrity and righteousness . . . he has integrity in the sense that he is morally sound, yes, but more so because of the fact that who he is and what he does are integrated: he acts like a member of the covenant community because he is a member of the covenant community.

Let’s consider this verse from Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 18:5 (NLT) – “Suppose there is a righteous man who does what is just and right.”

Ezekiel goes on to describe what it looks like when someone does what is just and right. But think about it, if righteous meant merely doing what is right, then that statement is a tautology (basically, an unnecessary repetition of meaning). If that’s what it means, then of course a righteous person does what is just and right. But if righteous can mean “one who is a citizen of the covenant community”, then the supposition makes total sense. As a member of the community, the righteous person has certain rights & responsibilities. If we look closely at the activities described as “just and right” . . . no idol worship, no adultery, no dishonoring women, being merciful, not robbing the poor, feeding the hungry, clothing the needy, freely lending, avoiding injustice, judging fairly, faithfully obeying the Lord . . . these are all about relating properly to the King of the community or to other members of the community. Here’s the most important thing to notice – the whole concept of righteousness is grounded in relationships, with God and with others. It’s only to the degree that our actions damage one of these relationships that it is concerned with personal morality.

Romans 12:4-5 (NIV) – “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

We belong to one another. We are not just functional tools that happen to be stored in the same tool box side by side. We are interconnected, living, treasured parts of the body of Christ. The greater our understanding of this, the greater our concern and motivation will be to treat every part of the body, from Christ the head to the least of these with great care and honor and love.

New Testament disciples recognized Jesus to be the most perfect example of what a member of the covenant community looks like – He had a special relationship with the Father and He perfectly obeyed every obligation of the covenant. This is why He is called “the righteous one.” Peter, Stephen, and Paul all refer to Jesus by that name!

Paul expands on this in the book of Romans, in showing how not only the Gentiles but also the Jews had failed to fulfill the obligations of the covenant community. All deserve the just sentence of the righteous judge. But instead of giving us what we deserved, God did something marvelous and righteous. Romans 3:21-22 (NLT) – “But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.”

The terms of the covenant require a righteous God to act according to those terms, and the consequences of breaking the covenant, as put in Isaiah are “you shall be eaten by the sword” – that is, the ultimate consequence is death. But Paul says there is a righteous one who stood in the place of all who have disobeyed. Jesus suffered the death that all covenant breakers deserved. Jesus endured the consequences that we had rightfully deserved – to be forsaken by God. Romans 3:25-26 says that by Jesus sacrificing His own life, it “shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.”

God is inviting all people to participate in the new covenant community – our initiation into this community is simply to trust in Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Believing the Good News means that we are “in Christ”, which means we are from that point on members of the covenant community. We have right standing with God in the kingdom community – this is GREAT news! It is only in this context that we can properly understand righteousness as referring to the way God would have us behave.

God is righteous. But that statement isn’t talking about God behaving perfectly and uprightly to an infinite degree. We would either hate or be very indifferent towards a god to whom we related only on the basis of behavior. This is one of the huge misunderstandings that prevails in the minds of many, that God is an angry authoritarian figure, waiting to punish us the moment we mess up. That is not what God is like. God is righteous. Righteous God creates community. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have invited us to join their community, to be part of God’s family. And God will do whatever it takes, including dying for us, to make a way for us to connect with Him. So when God says we are righteous, He’s not saying He wants to make us Pharisaical perfectionists, religious robots, or matchless models of morality. No, when God says we are righteous, He’s saying we are now part of His Kingdom community. Yes, we have covenant obligations – grace is not cheap – but the key to membership in this community is not optimal obedience, but love. God created us for relationship with Him – God is love, and He created us for love – love for Him, love for others. We cannot extract righteousness from community.

With that in mind, as I prepared for this class, I asked the Lord what was on His heart as far as a practical application.

Offense towards God

God says we’re righteous, part of His Kingdom community. He is a lavishly loving God who created us in His image with an amazing capacity to love. We also have a capacity to get offended, among other things. To be offended is to be irritated, annoyed, or angry in a resentful way, and sometimes to want to hurt or cause pain as a result. Jesus had this to say when He was responding to questions about whether or not He was the Messiah:

Luke 7:23 (NASB) – Jesus said . . . “Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”

Sometimes God does things in such a way that we think could have been done better. Jesus visited his hometown of Nazareth and got this reception:

Matthew 13:55-57 (NLT) – “Then they scoffed, ‘He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. All his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things?’ And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, ‘A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.’”

God is Sovereign and allows all kinds of things to happen to us for reasons often known only to Him. We have a choice in how we respond to the situations & circumstances that arise. Jesus used the analogy of a farmer sowing seed to talk to us about the great danger and possibility of offense among those who have received the Word (the Good News) with joy:

Matthew 13:20-21 (KJV 2000) – “But he that received the seed in stony places, the same is he that hears the word, and immediately with joy receives it; yet has he not root in himself, but endures for a while: for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he is offended.”

There are many other reasons why we might either be offended or be tempted to be offended towards God. We can examine our hearts to see if we are carrying offense against God. Here are some strategic questions we can ask ourselves:

• Is there some resentment, anger, or disappointment at unanswered prayer or answers to prayer that I didn’t like that is causing prayerlessness in me?
• Has any part of my heart grown cold?
• Do I feel apathetic about any aspect of the Kingdom of God?
• Am I so busy that I don’t take time to be still and know the Lord?
• Do I lack passion or compassion for the things that break God’s heart?
• Am I generally indifferent towards those who are hurting?
• Do I have a ho-hum attitude towards God’s Word or do I approach it with excitement and anticipation?
• Can I trust in God’s goodness and believe that His plans for me are the very best plans?
• Do I live as though I don’t need anyone except God, as though a body part could live independently of the body?

I want to tell you a story that has deeply impacted me. Late last summer a young drummer was walking along a street not far from where I live and became the victim of a hit-and-run driver. By all accounts he is a very talented and anointed drummer who served in several worship teams. As he lay in ICU the day of the accident, anticipating the surgery in which his lower leg would be amputated, he repeatedly screamed at the top of his lungs, “I am not offended with you, God! I love you, Jesus!” What a profound testimony and an encouragement to us all. We can passionately determine not to be offended with God.

Offense towards people

I want to read some key Scriptures on the subject of offense:

Proverbs 17:9 (NIV) – “He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.”

Proverbs 18:19 (NASB) – “A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a citadel.”

Proverbs 19:11 (NIV) – “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.”

Matthew 18:15-16 (NLT) – “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again . . .”

Romans 12:17-18, NLT – “Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.”

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NLT) – “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

We can determine not to be offended with each other. Prophetic teacher Graham Cooke says we can choose to have a Teflon coating so nothing will stick! “Being offended” seems sadly to be a plague of biblical proportions even in Christian circles. Perhaps because we can, we in wealthy places like the U.S. in our modern era have developed what smells like a culture of offense, such that when we’re offended, we just cut and run –new spouse, new church, new friends, new job, new city, new community, new god, or we stay and pollute the water or sue them or worse. True Christian community is based on authentic interdependent relationships. I’ve come to the conclusion through many bumps in relationships that we know we’ve reached the place of intimacy in a relationship when we’ve learned to fight properly. Where two or three are gathered, there is conflict! I want to recommend a wonderful resource on the topic of conflict that gives some very simple yet profoundly wise principles – “The Young Peacemaker.” It’s written for children, but I have found that some of the most profound life lessons can be learned through well-written books for children (e.g. Narnia!) Here’s a diagram showing the slippery slope of conflict and the main ways people choose to respond to it.

Conflict can be such a slippery slope if one or both parties choose either of these unwise options:

• The slippery slope on the left-hand side – Escape
  • Denial
  • Blaming
  • Running away
• The slippery slope on the right-hand side – Attack
  • Put downs
  • Gossip
  • Physical force

The Christ-like and wise response to conflict is pictured in the center – “work-it-out”:

• overlook as much offense as possible
• decide to forgive
• talk directly with the other person if what occurred cannot be overlooked or if the problem is hurting your relationship
• sometimes conflict resolution includes getting help from others, through coaching, mediation, or arbitration.

It always takes more effort to work out conflict well, but relationships are worth it! People are worth it! God is worth it because He is worthy! True love is unconditional, reaches out, and gives itself sacrificially. We need to stop making excuses for our coldness of heart – to be blunt, it’s not ok to do anything less than whatever we can to love others well. I feel the Lord is exhorting us to not put limits on our love.

There are many strategic questions we can ask ourselves:

• When I think of the people who are the most challenging to love, do I see the treasures that they are in the eyes of God their Creator?
• Do I value others enough to choose relationships over offense?
• Am I avoiding someone because of real or perceived conflict?
• Do I defend myself more than I defend the honor of Christ?
• When someone talks to me about someone else, do I encourage them to speak directly to that person instead of to me?
• Do I readily see my own shortcomings and failures or do I tend to believe that someone else is usually at fault?
• Do I lash out at others when I’m offended?
• Do I regularly practice asking strategic questions of others in my life in order to hear their hearts, or do I tend to live in denial?
• Do I practice forgiveness on a regular basis or have I frozen them in past negative experiences?
• Do I withhold love, physical affection, affirmation, close proximity, eye contact, or conversation from someone because of a real or perceived offense?

Righteousness doesn’t tear us apart. Righteousness is the very thing that enables us to embrace God and to embrace one another. It’s not about shaking our fingers. It’s about relationships – intimately & deeply loving and being loved by the Lord Jesus Christ and embracing one another. That’s what “the righteousness of God” is all about.

Psalm 85:10 (NLT) – “Unfailing love and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed!”