The Purpose of Righteousness

“… your Father who is in heaven… makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. . . . You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  (Matthew 5:45, 48)

God is righteous and calls us to righteousness – to be perfect as He is perfect.  That we are called to divine righteousness, to be holy (1 Peter 1:15-16) as God is holy, is usually not a debated point among Christians.   In what manner we can be holy is sometimes questioned – what does it take to be holy?  Strict obedience to laws, rules and regulations?   Loving as Christ loves us?  Sacrificial and co-suffering love?   Theological faithfulness?   Union with God?

Even when we can embrace ideas of what it means to be holy, there often is still the question, why?  Why be holy ?  What purpose does it serve?   It is a question that has long been asked by the people of God.  Many have wrestled with a notion that our righteousness, our holiness, is done so that we might please God and be rewarded by Him.

The problem with that thinking – righteousness is done in order that we be rewarded – is that it isn’t consistent with the entirety of Scripture or of the Gospel.  God is not righteous in order to be rewarded.

We are to be perfect as He is perfect.   God in His righteousness gives rain and sunshine to the wicked and to the good, to the righteous and unrighteous alike.  And we are told to be like Him.

We can look at Psalm 72 (from the Orthodox Study Bible, Psalm 73 in most other English translations) to see how the godly have wrestled with the issue of being righteous from ancient times.

“How good God is to Israel, to the upright in heart.  But as for me, my feet were almost shaken; My steps had nearly slipped.  For I was jealous of the lawless when I beheld the peace of sinners.”

The Psalmist is struck by the dilemma which is obvious to many: often unbelievers, the godless, the immoral, or the lawless prosper.  If the universe was perfectly just, if God is righteous, why do the wicked prosper ever?  Not only do they prosper but they both defy God and deny His power.

For there is no upward gaze at their death nor steadfastness in their chastening. They are not in difficulties as other men, and they shall not be chastened with other men.  For this reason arrogance mastered them; They clothed themselves with their wrongdoing and ungodliness;  Their wrongdoing shall go forth as from fatness; They passed through to their heart’s intent.  They thought and spoke in evil; They spoke in wrongdoing to the height. They set their mouth against heaven, And their tongue passed through the earth.  For this reason my people shall return here; Days of fullness shall be found in them.  They said, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”  Behold, these are sinners, and they prosper; They possess wealth in this age.

And so the Psalmist is disheartened and discouraged, as anyone who wants a totally just and logical universe might be.

And I said, “Surely in vain have I kept my heart righteous, and washed my hands with the innocent.”  For all day long I was scourged, and my reproof persisted through the night.  If I should speak, I would describe it thus: Behold, I am breaking covenant with the generation of your children.  And I sought to understand this; It was difficult in my sight

Though the Psalmist is puzzled by and in dismay at the reality he sees in this world, his thinking is confronted by another truth: the temple still testifies to the existence of God and God’s way.  There is more to life than this world:  there is heaven above and there is a future beyond this world.  We cannot understand God or righteousness in this world alone.  Whatever is happening now, whatever is triumphing now, will in time itself be displaced for this world is always changing and passing away.   The Psalmist realizes that it is life beyond this world, beyond the grave, beyond time, which gives permanent meaning to what we experience in the here and now.  It is true that the victors are the ones who tell history, but even the victors eventually pass away.

I sought to understand this; It was difficult in my sight, until I came into God’s holy place and understood their end.  Surely, for their deceits You appointed deceits for them; You cast them down in their exaltation.  Oh, how they came into desolation suddenly! They ceased to be; they perished in their lawlessness.  Like a dream to one who is awakened, so, O Lord, You shall despise their image in Your city.  For my heart was kindled, And my reins were changed, and I was despised, and did not know; I became like a beast before You.  And I am continually with You; You hold fast my right hand; With Your counsel You guide me, And with glory You take hold of me.  For what is there in heaven for me but You, And what do I desire on earth besides You? My heart and my flesh fail, O God of my heart; and God is my portion forever.  For behold, those who keep themselves far away from You shall perish; You destroy away from You all who act unfaithfully.  But as for me, it is good to cling to God, to put my hope in the Lord, that I may proclaim all Your praises In the gates of the daughter of Zion.

The righteousness the Psalmist believes in and hopes for can only be fulfilled in that bigger picture of life beyond the world:  in God, in heaven, in a final judgment.  This is all an issue of faith, of believing and trusting in God.  As the Lord Jesus said:

“I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

We Christians believe that Christ has destroyed death, Hades, sin, Hell, Satan and evil.  Yet in this world we still encounter death and sin, evil and suffering.  The issue of faith takes us into another dimension of this world – a Kingdom coming and yet not fully here, immanent and yet still transcendent.

Next:  The Purpose of Righteousness (II)