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Having spent over a year now blogging on righteousness, I came upon an interesting sight the other day, and it was just as I was starting 2 Peter 3… the very last chapter in the bible containing the word “righteousness”.  The sight was a group of Christians witnessing on a street corner with signs telling people to repent.  I was struck to core by the one that read:

Romans 3:10
There is no one righteous

I immediately pulled over.  I wanted to tell this person that this isn’t true, because people can be accounted righteousness through belief and obedience of God.  Something about that sign, I cannot remember what it was, told me that this person was sending the wrong message.  The message that came through to me was that it was impossible for someone to be seen as righteous in God’s eyes, under any circumstances.  It struck like the “I’m just a wretched man” doctrine that so many well-meaning Christians have, and I just knew that this was wrong.  So, I pulled over.

I didn’t go immediately to the witnesses.  They were at a gas station, and so I parked in the back.  I peered around to see what verse the sign was citing, and then quickly looked it up in my bible, and confirmed what the sign was literally saying, that “there is no one righteous, no, not even one.”  At that moment, the wind was taken out of my sails.  I now had no idea what I was going to say this person.  I was so sure that they were giving the wrong message, but they were not mis-quoting the verse, and I had to get to work.  Well, I should have kept reading, for the verse I was really looking for was down below.  It was verses 21 and 22, which read:

 ²¹But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²²This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

And so it looks like I was right.  Romans 3:10 was being used out of context.  It talks of the righteousness that comes from living by God’s Law, and saying no one truly lives by God’s Law is not the Gospel.  The Gospel is in verse 21, which is the righteousness that comes from believing God.

Now, to confuse things, if a person has righteousness, it is the same righteousness that have, whether it be by living perfectly by God’s Law, or believing in Jesus Christ.  So, if a man could live the Law perfectly, they would have the same righteousness as the man who does not, but believes God, and this case, believes God sent Jesus to die for their them.  But it is not I who make this assertion.  It is Paul… because I did quote verses above in their entirety.  Let me quote them again, but this time all the way through verse 24:

 ²¹But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²²This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, ²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

So, Verse 23 confirms verse 10, that no one is righteous by their actions under the Law.  YET, God chooses to see as see as just (or “just”-ify) those who believe in His Son, Jesus Christ.  As Abram believed God, and He accounted it to him as righteosness, so He does for us… and that is the gospel.

One of the least effective messages that we can send to non-Christians is that we cannot be righteous.  Sure, it’s true that no one can be righteous through their actions, as Romans 3:10 says, but that was never God’s point.  Rather than being a sad truth that God wants us to embrace, so that we can live in holy wretchedness, He has for us a back door so that we can live in glorious righteousness.  To use Romans 3:10 for witnessing is to say, “Accept Christ so that your wretchedness will not conquer you in this life.”  While true, you might as well say, “Embrace your wretchedness.  Accept it.  Because you cannot be any more than that in this world.”  Will that win souls over to Jesus?  Hardly.  At least, it would not win me.

However, keep reading, and one sees God’s true message, that a righteousness, apart from the law has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  So believe.  Believe God.  Believe in Christ, and it will be accounted to you as righteousness.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 11th, 2010 at 4:56 am and is filed under Word Studies, Bible Commentary, Devotional Notes, Walking with God, Righteousness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.