HOLY AND RIGHTEOUS, ME?

 Just how holy and righteous am I to be?  My good friend and author of God and Human Wholeness: Perfection in Biblical and Theological Tradition responded to my last devotion (Sept. 25) with the concern that while it is true that God looks at the heart and honors those who seek God, we must not play down “innocent or hands” and “pure in heart” as impossible demands.  The Bible does not present such perfection as impossible; and, this is not just an OT command.  Jesus never lowered the bar.  Drawing on the OT (e.g. Lev 19:2; Deut 18:13) Jesus, in the “Sermon on the Mount,” commands, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48).

I think Christians, including myself, try to find ways to sidestep this call to perfection.  Some people who adopt the forensic notion that Jesus’ righteousness is imputed to them (that is, God sees Jesus’ righteousness and not one’s own sinfulness) can lead them to such a sidestep.  They are already righteous!  This belief may serve as a corollary to the “cheap grace” practice of coming forward at church and saying the “sinner’s prayer” so that one “gets saved” and will not “go to hell,” but their lives do not change.  Another example would be those Christians who uphold a form of Dispensational theology that actually tosses out the Sermon on the Mount as not applicable to Christians!  My best excuse for self-tolerance (better: self-justification) fits a pattern of seeing myself as not quite as bad as some of those other folk.

But God is serious about the call for God’s people to be holy (distinct) and righteous in their relationships with God and others.  God works through God’s people.  It is through them that others are drawn to Christ and find blessing, healing, wholeness in relationship with their Creator.  Again, and embedded in Psalm 24, is the key answer: the practice of seeking God.  Those who truly seek God will be moving toward such perfection.  They will have the heart’s desire to change, and they will have the efficacious Presence of God to enable that change.  From them will radiate what Paul calls the “fruit of the Spirit,” love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22 – 23).

Lord, I want to be such a faithful seeker of you, your kingdom, your righteousness.  Help me.  Amen.