Authentic Righteousness: The Heart of Christian Life

As I read the Scriptures, it seems to me that the bottom line, the chief goal of the Christian life is righteousness – that what God wants from us more than anything else is righteousness. Now, I emphasize that for a reason. I hear Christians speaking all the time about piety, about spirituality, and even about morality, but you almost never hear anybody talk about righteousness. [00:00:48]

If Jesus were to walk in that room tonight, and we said to Him, “Lord, what is the chief priority that You have for Your church?” If He answered that question this evening the way He answered it in the New Testament period, He would say this: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything else will be added unto you.” [00:01:59]

Jesus doesn’t simply mean number one in terms of chronological order, but this word “protos” in the New Testament carries the implication of that which is first, not only in order of sequence, but it is foremost in terms of importance. That is to say, when Jesus says, “Seek first the kingdom of God,” He’s saying, “This is the top priority of the Christian life – seeking the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness.” [00:03:06]

Unless your righteousness exceeds – that is, goes beyond – the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you don’t have a chance of getting into the kingdom of God. Now, there are a couple of ways that we can interpret what Jesus is saying. Some commentators look at that phrase by Jesus, and they say, “Well we don’t have anything to worry about because what Jesus is talking about here is the righteousness that is required for us for justification.” [00:04:37]

But Luther said in our sanctification it doesn’t stay like that – that the person who is declared to be just by faith, if that faith is in fact genuine and not just a claim to faith or a charade here but that it’s authentic faith, then Christ will truly begin to be formed in that person’s life, and that person will begin to show forth the fruit of righteousness. [00:06:48]

So even though we don’t teach justification by works, we still are very much concerned with the fact that the New Testament calls us to show our faith by our works; and justification is by faith, but sanctification is where we grow in authentic righteousness. [00:07:49]

The Pharisees, as a party in Israel, emerged after the exile and the return from exile. Well what had happened was that the new generation of Israelite people began to adopt the pagan practices of those who were now in place, and they forgot their traditions. They forgot the Law of Moses and the covenant promises that God had made, and so a group of people who were especially devout arose in the nation who were the ancient counterparts, ladies and gentlemen, to the Puritans. [00:09:18]

They had this profound desire to reform the faith of Israel and to restore godliness to the nation. They were the conservatives of Israel who wanted to reach back into the past and recapture the pristine purity of the Commonwealth of Israel, and so they set themselves apart out of this concentrated zeal to obey the law of God; and because of their single-minded desire towards righteousness, they were named the “Set Apart Ones” – the “Pharisees.” [00:10:05]

We hear Jesus denouncing the Pharisees when He says unto them, “Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you compass sea and land to make one convert, and when he is made you make him twice the child of hell that you are yourselves.” Now, this is a pretty scathing indictment that Jesus makes of these people, but while He’s making this criticism, He does acknowledge that they are evangelical, or at least evangelistic. [00:12:06]

The second thing we learn about the Pharisees is that they were tithers. Not only were they tithers, ladies and gentlemen, they were scrupulous in obeying God’s laws for tithing. In other words, they put their money where their mouths were. The last poll that I saw about – that was taken of “evangelical Christians” in the United States of America indicated that four percent of proclaimed evangelical Christians tithe their income. [00:15:35]

The Pharisees spent all kinds of time in disciplined, spiritual exercises, and in prayer. In fact, they loved to be called upon at public meetings to pray because they were so eloquent, and the people applauded them. They were the teachers, the preachers, the prayers, the evangelists – the professional religionists of their day. [00:24:01]

The word that Jesus uses for them again and again is the word “hupokritos” – hypocrite – which means “one who is a play-actor,” one who on the surface manifests a religiosity, a kind of piety, but whose life in the deeper dimension never, ever reaches authentic righteousness. Now again, the danger here of reducing the Christian life to externals is a danger that comes in every age. [00:24:49]