When zeal for God is detrimental

Rom 10:1-4 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Phil 3:7-10 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith...

Zeal for God would seem like such a wonderful thing, wouldn't it? But yet the zeal for God mentioned above was in vain. And not only was it in vain, but it was detrimental to those who had such great zeal, because in this zeal they had a certain form of righteousness, but it was their own righteousness - not God's righteousness.

In their zeal and devotion to God, they were actually kept from God, because they were trusting in their own righteousness and in doing so they fell short of the only righteousness that is acceptable to God - His own righteousness. This righteousness cannot be earned, but can only be received by faith, as a gift.

In this post I've underlined two distinct types of righteousness - Man's righteousness and God's righteousness. One type is an attempt to earn favor with God through self-effort (self-righteousness) and the other is a gift that can only be received by faith. One type is done with great zeal, but nevertheless falls completely short of the only type of righteousness that counts for anything.

The gospel is all about God's righteousness (see Romans 1:16-17) - and how it's freely given to all who believe. It would seem "logical" to the human mind that submitting to God's righteousness would mean trying as hard as we can to attain to it. But yet it's utter foolishness! If a person is trying to attain to righteousness by their own works, they have not submitted to God's righteousness. It can only be received in one way - as a FREE GIFT!

Unripe and plastic fruit - Part 2 of 2

Another blog post that brought about my desire to post on this subject is Until Love Pleases... from Matthew's blog. Matthew brings out a verse from Song of Solomon that says not to "stir up or awaken love until it pleases." We're in such a hurry these days. Such a hurry to do, such a hurry to perform, such a hurry to produce, such a hurry to grow. Which leads to another huge problem that can easily come as a result of performance-based Christian teaching - fake lifestyles and fake love that only appears holy --- also known as self-righteousness. I realize that self-righteousness is often perceived to mean a "holier than thou" attitude, but actually I think far more often it's expressed in the form of a performance-based lifestyle - me trying my best perform for God or for people.

Last week I shared with my pastor (again, agreeing on some things and disagreeing on other things - which is perfectly fine) my thoughts that there are many people who hear all the principles taught in churches every week, and, sincerely wanting to be 'good Christians,' they put up the appearance of having it all together - but in reality they're just faking it. They're faking holiness. It's not only fruit that's unripe. It's fake, plastic fruit. It may have every appearance of being real, but it's not real. I think that due to all the "doing" teaching in the church today there is a lot of pressure to look as if you're living it, and living it well. Sometimes it's pressure we put on ourselves and other times it's peer pressure, but either way, performance-based Christianity does not help at all!

The fruit that I'm talking about includes, but is not limited to, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). We're taught that all of these things - along with all the good works - are the marks of a good Christian, so we go around trying to display them, or treating them like "projects" that we need to work on and become better at. And so in our meetings we talk the talk and we act as if we're walking the walk, and we can make it look reeeeal good, but all it really is is an external appearance on the outside that hasn't truly come from who we are inside. And that's because we're not living from the Life that we already have on the inside, but rather we're constantly trying to follow all these principles and rules through external means ("the flesh"), trying to make ourselves to be something, when in fact we already are holy, righteous and complete in Him!

My purpose here is not to get down on anyone, but simply to point out the difference between unripe and plastic fruit that is the result of forced, contrived, fleshly growth, and real fruit that comes naturally and in due season as the Lord Himself works in us through His very life. The fruit of the Spirit is... the fruit of the Spirit. It's not up to us, but it's His fruit that He patiently works out of us as we simply abide (rest, remain) in Him and grow in His supernatural timing. His fruit in us is never unripe, never fake, never bad tasting, never plastic.

And so... what are some solutions to all this? I think the comments that came in after I posted Part 1 are excellent! Mainly... let's preach the pure gospel of grace. Let's preach Jesus. Let's not add anything to the gospel (such as our own works) or take anything away from it (such as the finished work of Jesus). And let's relax and lighten up! It's my opinion (and you can judge for yourself the validity of my opinion) that the various principles and exhortations to good works in the New Testament weren't written as a means of studying every week and then going out and trying to apply them to become better Christians. Rather, they are things that, as we grow in our understanding of who God is and who we truly are in Christ (the true foundation of our entire life of grace), show us what it looks like when it's "worked out" over the course of our lifetimes.

You simply can't force any of it. It must come naturally, and I believe it comes naturally as we grow in the gospel of grace, not as we try to "apply" principles. I believe it comes from the constant sharing with each other of the freedom and peace that we have in Christ, and God's unconditional love. I think most people know all the "do's and don'ts" of the Christian life, but how many people really know who they are in Christ? How many people really know the love of God? How many people are truly rooted and established in God's love and grace?

And so my plea to the Christian church is to preach Christ and Him crucified, dead and raised again! There is more power than you could ever imagine in this alone!

The answer is always B - 9/26/08 - "The Gospel and Righteousness"

It's been a while since I've done one of these ever-so-difficult multiple-choice pop quizzes.

What is the correct wording of Romans 1:16-17?

A. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, especially for those who try harder to live right. For in it man's righteousness becomes even better; as it is written, "The just shall live by trying to be just."

B. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."

C. Is Billy Joel Keeping the Faith? ;)

Big Difference 3 - Self righteousness vs. God's righteousness

(Or man's righteousness vs. God's righteousness)

For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Rom 10:3-4 NKJV (emphasis mine)

How is it that man seeks to establish his own righteousness (self-righteousness)? By the Law. By his own works. By his own self effort. In seeking to establish his own righteousness by the things he does, he lives a life that is ignorant of God's righteousness! In seeking to establish his own righteousness, he has not submitted to God's righteousness. Is there not a big difference between man's righteousness and God's righteousness?

We cannot live up to God's righteousness by what we do. It's impossible. As James said (and as I pointed out in Big Difference 2), if you keep the whole blessed thing and stumble in just one point, you wind up being guilty of the whole thing because you are a transgressor and transgressors to not inherit the kingdom of heaven. You have fallen short of Jesus' words to "be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matt 5:48). You can even do all the things that Jesus commanded... and if you stumble in just one point, you have fallen short and you are guilty.

The good news is "the gospel!" In Romans 1:17, Paul is speaking of the gospel (see vs. 16) and he says, "For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed..."

The gospel reveals God's righteousness, as opposed to man's righteousness that he tries to establish by what he does. The gospel replaces man's attempts at righteousness with the gift of righteousness.

*For an explanation of this Big Difference series, see the original post.*