What Makes Us Right With God?

 

I’ve written before about how Christianity can be confusing. The confusion comes primarily from those of us who profess to be Christians, not really from the Bible itself. The Bible is pretty clear. But sometimes it does sound like Christianity is a list of behaviors, which if we follow we are in the “club”.

One such confusion can come from what it means to be “righteous”. The Bible speaks a lot about God loving, saving, helping the righteous. And there are Scripture passages that might lead someone to believe you can attain righteousness by doing something – behaving in a certain way, avoiding certain behaviors, whatever. And once you've achieved "righteousness" God will love, help and save you.

The Oxford Dictionary offers this definition of righteousness: the quality of being morally right or justifiable. This would include right conduct and sometimes is taken to mean moral excellence.

The Bible seems to define righteousness as living according to God’s character: holiness, purity, uprightness. The Ten Commandments would be another reference to what behaviors God expects in a righteous person. Proverbs presents righteousness as something to pursue (see Proverbs 15:9, 21:3, 21:21). In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)

 “Happy people are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They want to be right with God. They want to walk with God. They long for these things. That is where happiness will come from—not from the things of this world.” (Philip Wijaya, Ph.D. https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-is-righteousness.html)  So, can we somehow do some specific things to find this happiness, and achieve righteousness?  Can we just be good people, morally living our lives best we can and consider ourselves righteous?

Unfortunately, the Bible also teaches that there are none who are righteous, at least not righteous in the way God demands. We are pretty good at being right in our own eyes. But the Bible is very clear, in both Old and New Testaments) that we are incapable of being totally righteous. (see Psalms 14:1-3; Romans 3:10-18). We can try as hard as we want, but we always fall short. We may wish to live lives that reflect God’s character, but always end up failing. We can also be satisfied that we are ‘good enough’, and fool ourselves into thinking we are righteous.

Abraham was a man called by God, and he followed (story begins in Genesis 12). Abraham left all he knew and followed God’s lead. Abraham is referred to as a righteous man. But Abraham was far from perfect. The Bible teaches that Abraham had righteousness credited to him. How? Why? Because he believed God and followed Him. Romans 4:3 says “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”  It wasn’t a perfect, sinless life, but a gift, given because Abraham believed, even if his belief was shaky and imperfect.

All of this centers around Jesus, God’s grace gift to sinners. There are none, on their own accord, who are righteous. All have sinned and fall short of God’s standard. All are helpless to do any kind of good works to make up for the deficit. Maybe by human standards we appear to be very righteous, but God’s standard is a bit higher. The good news is God, in His love for His creation, made a way possible to do the impossible. He paid the penalty for our sin, dying in our place, so if we place our faith in Him, we too are credited with righteousness. Righteousness, being right with God, is a gift given to all who believe. We can show God’s character in our lives. It’s like a bank account that is empty, in deficit even, and someone comes along and puts undeserved, unearned money into our account. God’s grace declares us in the black, righteous!

In Psalms 36:5-10 it says How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart.

This could be a passage where it seems like God gives his righteousness to those who are upright, already righteous. But note that it says “upright in heart”. I may be unable to live a sinless, perfect life, but I can desire so in my heart. My heart can be righteous with the righteousness given to me in my belief. Sometimes my actions will reflect that righteousness. Sometimes they do not. But it’s there, because I believed God, and He put righteousness in my heart. 

Instead of relying on my imperfect character to do right in the world, I need to learn to rely on God to live his righteousness out through me.  Romans 8:1-4 speaks of the “righteous requirements of the law” (think Ten Commandments) being live out, not by us, but through us. That is a huge burden lifted from our shoulders. Yes, Christians are to behave in a way that reflects God’s character, but we are not ask to create that character ourselves. We can’t and only get frustrated trying (so we try to cover up our inadequacies by becoming even more legalistic and confusing non-believers regarding what Christianity really is). If we let God bear His fruit through us, then people see God in us.

The legalistic, hypocritical striving to seem perfect, sinless by Christians has turned away many seeking God. If being a Christian means behaving in certain ways – then the failure to do so makes Christianity seem impossible if not unbelievable. God has never asked us to be righteous of our own accord. He asks us to open our lives up to Him, receive His free gift of forgiveness and righteousness, and live out His character by His strength, not our own.

Christianity is not a good works, rigid, behavior based religion. That is a total misconception. Christianity is a fluid and growing relationship with our Creator, Who loved us enough to pay the penalty for our brokenness and make us whole. The burden isn’t on us because He took it on Himself. Our job, like Abraham, is to step out in faith, believe God’s promise, and receive His gift of righteousness.

Grace in the Contrasts

 

I love fall days. The changes are beautiful and often dramatic. Today we are at the coast and the rain came down in torrents last night. This morning all the vegetation looks bejeweled as the sun hits on the droplets. We drove up to Lake Cushman a few days ago, and the color in the leaves really stood out. There has been a horrific fire burning on the north end of the lake for much of the summer. The remains were hidden from us by low hanging clouds and smoke that still clings in the air. Fall is full of those contrasts, light and dark, clear and cloudy, warm and cold. It’s a season of change.

It’s also the season leading us into the holidays. We are now past mid-October, and as the days grow darker, they also seem to move by at a quicker pace. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas are all just around the corner. Fall ushers in the holidays which are, often times emotionally, also a time of contrasts, happy and sad, highs and lows, anticipation and disappointment.

We arrived here at the coast to find our heat pump not working. The house was so cold. The repairs can’t start until next week, but meantime we learned about “emergency heat” and have that going, plus a fire in the fireplace. We are cozy and warm, and I love that feeling. The world can be going crazy outside our walls, storms pounding, and we are dry and safe inside.

Several years ago we had a new furnace put in, and for some reason they were unable to finish the job in one day. It was also in late October and growing colder outside with frost in the mornings. We were fine inside with a few extra layers, but I was grumpy that the workers hadn’t finished the job. Then, on my way work I passed a church hosting a homeless camp. Those people had spent the night in tents. Suddenly, my lack of a furnace for one night seemed so much less important, embarrassingly so. I had a bathroom, warm shower, hot coffee. What on earth did I have to grumble about?

Life is like that. We have lots of contrasting emotions and experiences. Sometimes we think we are the only one to experience these ups and downs, and it’s good to be reminded that this is the human condition, not ours alone. When we think we are the only one suffering, we need to drive past the homeless encampment (literally or metaphorically) and be reminded of the blessings we have. Life may not be perfect, but my guess is most of us are doing ok, even when things break down. It could be a lot worse.

Even when we feel there are no other humans around who would understand our plight, we need to remember God is always there. We are never alone. There is so much grace in that truth. But, unfortunately, when clouds come in or furnaces break, we often forget He’s there. And He’s there for the people in the homeless encampment and the ICE detainment centers here in our country, and He’s there for the poorest of the poor living around the world. His presence has nothing to do with wealth or fame or living in the first world. His presence is a grace gift He’s given to all of us, undeserving as we are.

Better to not only accept His presence, but to also accept His love and forgiveness. When all is said and done, having accepted God’s gift of relationship, which is so much better than just His presence, is the key to finding peace and contentment in our lives. If we know we are in God’s hands, it doesn’t matter what life throws at us. We are ultimately safe and secure, like a home in the Fall when the wind and rain hits the house we are blessed to own, and we have a warm fire or a working furnace.

“I sought the Lord, and he answered me, he delivered me from all my fears…This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles…Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing….those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”  Psalms 34:4,6,8,9

DEI, Politics and Super Bowl Half-time

 

Why does everything need to be political today, vaccines, library books, Super Bowl half-time? I’ve been fascinated by all the controversy over choosing Bad Bunny to perform at the Super Bowl. We have people calling again for making English the national (read “only”) language. We have ICE planning to raid the stands looking for illegals. We have others freaked out that another culture is taking over our Super Bowl and from there end our world as we know it. What ever happened to just watching the game, enjoying the commercials and preparing food during halftime?

Unfortunately, a lot has to do with the current focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, DEI.  There is this strong outcry against supporting anything that isn’t a win for white people. In the push to make America great, we seem to have forgotten America is made up with more than just white people. I heard the Hispanic population makes up around 20% of our country’s demographics. So a Hispanic performer at the Super Bowl seems more than fitting – not to mention Bad Bunny is popular with a lot more than his own ethnic group; he’s an international phenomena.

But it isn’t just the Super Bowl. Universities have had their funding cut or threatened, because of their DEI policies and curriculum that supports DEI. Public Schools are being told to stop teaching about slavery, the pushing of Native Americans on to reservations, and the quest for civil rights, even women’s rights. We are told all of that is racist??? Racist against whom? White people? Of course, those of us living today didn’t make the decisions that led to slavery or reservations. However, we could still be perpetuating the stereotypes that came out of those awful scenarios, especially if we are holding people back. Another part of DEI focused on education, with the intent to stop hampering, bullying, harming our minority populations. How is that racist?

Our country began as a haven for immigrants, yes, but predominantly white, Anglo Saxon, Protestant men. Those were the people in leadership, those were the people who set the agenda for this new country, which wasn’t so new. There had been people living here for centuries before these white men arrived. But our founders saw fit to erase the existing cultures upon arrival. So white people, especially affluent white men, have had it pretty good through the past 250 years of our country.

Why the push back? There is talk of these non-white immigrant cultures coming in and usurping “our” culture. That fear has been here from the beginning. They may have been male and white, but Irish and Italian immigrants were feared and dissed because they were Catholic. We hear people talking about “preserving” our culture – but our culture is totally a mix of everyone who has ever lived here.

Since white people have controlled everything in America for our entire history, I guess it’s not surprising the ebbing of that power might cause them some fear. But having Bad Bunny present an entirely Spanish half-time show isn’t going to have us wake up the next morning speaking Spanish any more than having a woman as a boss is going to make someone less of a man. There is really nothing to be afraid of, except maybe these minority groups banding together to form a voting block that would bring DEI back into play.

DEI programs were designed to even the playing field. All the players had originally been white. But people of all ethnicities were living here, contributing to our country. They deserved a shot at college and jobs, home ownership and a place in the community. But the odds were stacked against them by the dominant culture that created the job requirements, admittance tests and loan requirements.  Once someone could get into a school or take on a job or be given a loan, they did as good as or better than their white counterparts. For example, women have made terrific fire personnel and soldiers. Women and people of color have made terrific doctors, lawyers, teachers, and politicians. Their qualifications have nothing to do with their gender, their skin color or their country of origin. If they can do the job, they can do the job.

I’ve heard complaints about seeing too many people of color in TV commercials. So what? People of color buy stuff too.  Our sports teams are full of players from a variety of cultures (although that didn’t happen without a fight either). Why wouldn’t we have halftime programs that speak to them? Haven’t we had our share of white focused advertising and programming?  I can’t get the image out of my head of the little girl seeing the live-action Ariel in The Little Mermaid and saying in amazement, “she looks like me.”  It was a magical moment for that child. White people have seen themselves on TV, in movies, on sports teams, in classrooms and in public office for always. We don’t even think about it anymore. Our children probably don’t see a white Disney princess and think “she looks like me”. We don’t really understand what that means anymore, because it’s all around us. We’ve had that privilege forever.

What really hurts me is how callous we are towards people who are not like us. The disposing of DEI simply says to the people who need and benefit from those programs, “we don’t care about you.” That is heart breaking. Our world is richer for all the diversity in it.

Christians especially should be supporters of equality for all. Instead, our history is quite spotty on the issue. We forget Jesus would have been a person of color, not the white man too often pictured in our art. He was Middle Eastern. He wasn’t a Western man. He was poor. I wonder what He would think of all of this? The fact is, we are all made in God’s image, regardless of gender, color, sexual identity, whatever. In God’s sight we are the same. He sent his Son to die for all of us – no exceptions. Jesus evens the playing field by allowing us all into His family. What right do we have to do the opposite? Our constant creation of divisions only keeps people from seeing God. Jesus commanded us to go and bring people to Him, not pick and choose whom we think are welcome.

Acceptance of people who are different from us needn’t be so difficult. People are people. To paraphrase Shakespeare, ‘scratch us and we all bleed’. As a nation we had really made a lot of progress in the areas of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Hiring practices, educational curriculum – including a broader look at history-, creation of new opportunities have assisted a lot of minorities. Those assisted have then become role models for ones coming up. Obviously, we have a long way to go. Under the surface of progress, bigotry still exists. And today’s politicizing of everything doesn’t help.

DEI programs are necessary until the majority can accept and welcome in those who are not like them. DEI should be supported by both sides of the political spectrum.  As long as the majority puts up road blocks, we will need to have programs to tear them down. I’m not sure that will ever be totally possible, being human beings with sin natures that make us fearful of anything we deem different or somehow threatening. So DEI programs will probably always be necessary, and Christians should be the biggest supporters.

 How crazy is it that a Puerto Rican Superstar, performing at the Super Bowl, is made out to be a threat to the universe as we know it? Bottom line: I don’t have to like Bad Bunny, or even listen to him, to support his right to perform on the half-time show and delight those listeners who adore him. Who knows, this might be one of the best ever half-time shows.  That could actually shift the universe bit.

Contentment

 

In Philippians 4:11-13 Paul shares a statement about contentment. He says he’s learned to be content with what he has, and whatever state he is in, because of his relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul says he can be content because he “can do all things through Him (Christ) who strengthens me”.  When he wrote this, Paul was in prison, not some place we would think to find much contentment.

Contentment isn’t an easy commodity. I’d say discontent is more likely to be the state in which we find ourselves. Tariffs, recession, high prices, political unrest – all of this and more contribute to the discontent we feel. We probably say “if only” a lot.  If only I had more money. If only I had a better job. If only I could lose weight. If only I had more sun.  If only these conditions were met, then I could be happy, content.

I am very discontented with our federal government. Every day I read in the news something that agitates me, adding up to a long list. We have begun a government shutdown, not much room for contentment in that, especially for the people whose jobs are on hold. I listen to our representatives argue over their side, and struggle to see where they can find middle ground. The decisions being made on our behalf by our government raise my anxiety and certainly my discontent. I’m guessing people on both sides of the political divide don’t feel much differently than me. All of us have our "if onlys" 

I don’t need the government to affect my contentment. I already have bills to pay, doctors to see, people to mollify. Even doing the laundry can mess up any state of contentment. I hate doing the laundry because it is never done. You can wash it all, fold it and put it away and already there are more things in the laundry basket. Silly to have that affect my contentment, but some days it does. And probably for most of us, it’s the little things that get hold of us.

What does it feel like to be contented? Certainly peace of mind, a sense of well-being. At the beach, sitting outside our house on a warm day, listening to the ocean and the birds, there I feel a lot of contentment. It’s when I let in all the other noise that my contentment disappears into agitation and worry. I’ll remember a doctor’s appointment coming up with an unknown procedure. My thoughts will stray to an unresolved issue with a friend or family. Even a memory of some spousal irritation can pop in, and contentment hits the road.

I was just reading about the Apostle Paul facing a shipwreck. (Acts 27) He was on his way to Rome. God had told him he would have a ministry in Rome. God wasn’t finished with Paul’s work here. When it looked like the worst was about to happen, Paul tells the crew that they would all survive; this wasn’t the end. However, the ship would be lost.  Good news, we will live. Bad news we will have to swim for it.  Sounds like a frying pan/fire situation. But they did get to shore and survive. Paul did get to Rome. He went as a prisoner, but was under house arrest for years, allowing him much freedom to minister and share the Christian message. Eventually he was placed in prison awaiting execution. It was there he wrote his words about contentment.

All this tells me that contentment isn’t about the absence of difficult circumstances. We think it is, but since such an absence is rare, Paul probably has it right. Paul’s contentment wasn’t about having a carefree, peaceful life. He said he had learned to be content in whatever circumstances faced him. So contentment is more than being problem free.

So what is contentment? According to Paul it is something we can learn. This would infer a choice (to learn or not). Paul learned contentment through a lot of extremely difficult circumstances. He learned not to say “if only”, but to accept the present and rest in that. Most important, he learned the God was with him through the storm, into the water, and onto the shore. God was with Paul in minimum security and maximum security prison. God was with him as he was led to, and during his execution. Through it all, Paul was content because God was with him. Paul had learned to focus on God, not on his circumstances. 

The Bible reveals that Paul was human and had his moments of angst. But over his lifetime he had learned contentment. He’d learned to trust that God had his life in hand, and would never leave or forsake him, even in the worst of circumstances. He knew God had a plan for his life, and at the end of his life he looked forward to Heaven and eternity with the God he loved and served. He wrote in Romans that even death can’t separate us from the love of God.

In another place I was reading about how gratitude can help with our anxieties and discontent. If I were to focus on the things I do have, it takes my mind from the “if onlys” For this week, the laundry is done. My doctor’s appointment showed everything is ok. My family is healthy. I have terrific friends. My husband is a saint. I have much to be thankful for. But what if I was to lose it all, on what do I then base my gratitude? Ultimately, for me, I am grateful that my Creator God died for what I deserved and now walks with me through whatever life throws at me. Everything else is really only temporary. Only God remains the same “yesterday, today and forever.” And this God chose to make a relationship with Him a daily, living reality. The ship may sink. I might have to swim to shore, but He is with me. I might even drown (a real possibility, my being such a terrible swimmer), but still, He is with me and I will step from the water into Heaven.

Ultimately, then, contentment lies in remembering Whose I am. Every day I learn more about living life with God. And that life includes learning to be content, whatever the circumstances, because He is bigger than the circumstances.  Governments and laundry come and go, but God promises to always be with me, through it all. I can learn this because He promises “I can do all things” through Him “who gives me strength”.