Are You Good Or Are You Righteous?

 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (Romans 5:6-9)

As mentioned in my earlier post, Peace With God, one of the great advantages of memorizing passages from Scripture is that it gives you an opportunity to meditate upon God's truth throughout all those little "down times" in life ... when you awake in the morning, as you prepare meals, while driving, waiting in line, ironing, eating your lunch and so forth, all those little moments when you can recite the passage to yourself and think about it from all different aspects. In this next passage (Rom.5:6-9) we discover how undeserving believers really are. As Jesus said in His sermon on the mount, "Blessed are the poor in spirit...", those who realize their complete spiritual bankruptcy before a holy God. (Mt.5:3). Only they are willing to approach God on His terms, rather than in their own imagined righteousness.

And that led me, totally apart from the context, to considering the terms "good man" and "righteous man". Are you a "good man" or are you a "righteous man"? The difference lies in one's perspective. Compared to other men, we can often label ourselves as "good". We look at murderers, rapists, child molesters and that ever-popular whipping boy, the "hypocrite" sitting next to us in church, and come away with a positive self-evaluation that we are "basically a good person". We remembered our Mom on her birthday. We've never murdered, nor raped, nor molested the innocent. And certainly we've never said we believed something to be true while living as if we didn't believe it all! So, all in all, we pat ourselves on the back and come away with the self-evaluation that we are basically "good". Isn't that what we most often hear when we proclaim the gospel of Christ to others, that they don't need Christ because they're basically a "good person"?

But God does not want us to be "good". God wants us to be "righteous". He wants us to reflect His own holiness. He wants us to have an obedient heart like Christ's, one that says, "Not my will, but Thine be done." He wants us to love others more than ourselves, in the manner Christ did. Our own righteousness will never be "good" enough. Only Christ's righteousness will do! We must be clothed in His righteousness, God's own righteousness, to have a right-standing before God.

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, FOR he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness... (Isa.61:10)

(So that I) "may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith." (Phil.3:9)

"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name...           
When He shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be found,
Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.       
     On Christ the Solid Rock I stand,
     All other ground is sinking sand,      
     All other ground is sinking sand."    [The Solid Rock, Edward Mote]