Stages of Growth (Tracing the Route to Righteousness)

The Christian life is all about growing—in our understanding of who God is, of who we are, and of how we can live lives that are holy and pleasing to Him. This process can feel arduous at times. But, as a Christian writer once mused, the more complex an organism, the longer it takes for that organism to mature. A fruit fly may mature in a week or two, but a cat takes 18 months, a chimp takes 15 years, and a human being physically takes more than 20 years years. Our spiritual selves are even more complex than our physical selves, so reaching maturity in a spiritual sense takes even longer.

When we first become Christians, our salvation might seem simple to us. We might find ourselves generally at peace and rejoicing in the salvation that Jesus has so recently imparted to us. 

As time goes on, we read the Bible, we compare ourselves with other people, and we might begin to feel inadequate. Our solution is to exert more effort. Read the Bible longer. Pray more. Try harder to “be good.” If only we check enough boxes in the good column, and cross out enough behaviours from the bad column, we will finally be “good Christians.” Eventually we might get worn out by our increasingly legalistic mindset. Our relationship with God might loosen. Then we feel guilty, and try harder for a while until exhaustion fells us once more. 

Some of us might walk away from our faith, convinced that the harder we try the more we fail—so what’s the point of expending so much effort? We might put on a good face on Sundays and live however we want the rest of the time. Those with a lower tolerance for hypocrisy might stop attending church altogether.

Others of us might encounter a moment of crisis, in which we once more run back to Jesus and ask for His help. When He gives it, we gain a new appreciation for our own weakness and His strength. We realize that living the Christian life isn’t about “trying” at all, but about allowing Christ to work in and through us. We might learn to depend on Him for our righteousness, and for for the strength to measure up. Sure, we might sometimes slip back into trying in our own strength to do “good” things and avoid “bad” things. But we never forget the things that He has saved us from. 

Through various points of suffering and crisis, He continues to refine our views on depending on Him for our righteousness. We might cling to verses like:

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

(Galatians 2:20, NASB)

He is the source of our victory, and He is the source of our righteousness.


More to the Story

Over the last few weeks, God has been highlighting another dimension to righteousness that I would like to share with you here.

Let’s start with a quote from a book I’ve just finished reading.

We used to believe that the successful Christian life was about doing good, and not doing sins. But sin is more than a behaviour issue; sin results when we forgot to trust in the real God for our identity and spiritual strength, or when we place our trust in something other than our Source.

If I use drugs, steal, or commit adultery in an attempt to meet my needs, it is sin. What makes it sin is not that I performed a behaviour on the “bad list”—although I did do that. The sin is that I tried to draw life or significance from something that could not give it. Instead of trusting God I trusted a false god. That is missing the mark. [1]

If, on the other hand, I teach Sunday school class, serve on a committee or put money in the offering in order to validate myself or earn approval from God or someone else, it’s also sin. What is a sin about it, however, is not that I didn’t do behaviours on the “good list” (because I did do them). It’s that I tried to draw life and significance from something that could not give it. Instead of trusting God I turned to a false god—positive-looking, but false just the same. That also is missing the mark. [2]

None of the ideas in this passage were new to me, and I suspect this may be the same for you as well. However, seeing these ideas arranged in this particular order seemed to unlock something within my understanding.

Let’s focus for a moment on the core truth in this passage.

It’s not what we do that makes us holy or sinful. It’s what’s in our hearts. 

That’s what Jesus was getting at when He said:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may also become clean.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you too, outwardly appear righteous to people, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

Matthew 23:25-28

It wasn’t the good things that the Pharisees had done, nor the bad things that they had avoided, that made them unholy hypocrites.

No, as Jesus pointed out, it was their focus on achieving honour and respect for themselves:

“[The scribes and Pharisees] do all their deeds to be noticed by other people; for they broaden their phylacteries [signs of how much scripture had been memorized] and lengthen the tassels of their garments [signs of holiness]. And they love the place of honor at banquets, and the seats of honor in the synagogues, and personal greetings in the marketplaces, and being called Rabbi [or, wise teacher] by the people.”

Matthew 23:5-7, explanations mine

Although the Scriptures clearly taught that the focus of each human being should be on loving God [3], the Pharisees had personally eschewed this teaching in favour of cementing their own social status.


Roles in Righteousness

During His sermon on the mount, Jesus pointed to the hypocrites and said, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” [4]

Perhaps, like me, you have  interpreted the passage above like this:

When we perform our righteous deeds for the sake of being seen by other people, the respect and praise of those people is our reward. We receive our reward on earth, so there is be no need for further reward in heaven. If we want to be rewarded in heaven, we need to avoid motivations that include gaining respect and praise from human beings.

However, that’s not quite what Jesus said. When we consider the idea that at its root “sin results when we forget to trust in the real God for our identity and spiritual strength, or when we place our trust in some thing, other than our Source,” we begin to see that the removal of heavenly reward is not simply because of misplaced priorities. It’s more elemental than that. It’s because doing our righteous deeds in order to be seen by others is outright sin. 


Next time, we’ll explore how this impacts our interpretation of a few other scriptures relating to sin and righteousness.


NOTES

[1] The word “sin” is an archery term that literally means “to miss the mark.” Anything that does not hit the bull’s-eye of righteousness is considered sin.

[2] David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse: Recognizing & Escaping Spiritual Manipulation and False Spiritual Authority, (Grand Rapids, MI: Bethany House Publishers, 1991), page 9 of 10 in chapter 19 in ebook.

[3] See  Mark 12:29–34.

[4] Matthew 6:1, ESV.

(Picture Source)