Day 3070 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Ecclesiastes 7:16 NIV

The religious among humanity are undertaking a great effort to prove themselves able to become something our pasts have already proven we're unable to be.

And that egocentric mindset is one that all of us have at a time adopted unto ourselves thinking that within righteous acts done under our own strength and through our own effort we might prove ourselves worthy of God's benevolence therefore sidestepping the guilt of knowing that we ourselves, through our past transgressions, lived a way of life in which we held the hammer that drove the nails that pierced the flesh of He who'd done no wrong against us.

Yet, in our great endeavor to prove ourselves of sufficient holiness so as to render Christ's sacrifice moot on our behalf, we've taken what's merely a part of this calling of the cross and twisted it into something that's led us only away from He who hung in our place.

We're at dire risk of idolizing an aspect of faith rather than worshiping the only reason we've the opportunity to have this faith. You see, righteousness isn't the goal. It's not the purpose. Righteousness is merely the pursuit which will lead us toward the goal. Righteousness is a byproduct of having hearts firmly fixed on following Christ. Righteousness is a symptom of the renewal continually found through the humility demanded to actually walk by faith, trusting in the One we cannot see.

But if you look at the undertakings being undertaken by the religious and devout today, you'll find a great many who are living a works-driven faith rather than a faith shown by works. And while that may simply sound like different ways of saying the same thing, there's a tremendous difference between faith by works and works from faith. We're called to the latter, but the former is the foremost path upon which many feel obligated to walk.

We're told that we must prove ourselves. We must exemplify the perfection toward which we've been called. We must be the ones who prove to the world that in Christ we've become so perfect that we no longer need His help, His healing, His hope. We must be the ones doing good deeds as a means of showing we're working to earn our salvation, but only because our vanity cannot bear that we’ve been asked to accept His mercy as a gift we don’t deserve. So instead we try to work for it so that His mercy therefore becomes a reward we’re owed.

Oh but friends, that's not at all how this works. Because if this faith required our good works, none of us would ever be saved. This fact is proven clearly in our pasts spent pretending we were good enough only to be left holding a mountain of sins and transgressions from under which we couldn’t move. Indeed, as long as we try to measure up, we’re only forgetting that we can only fall short, only because we already have. Even Abraham was only counted as righteous before God due to His faith in God, not by works done in an attempt to please God.

And that’s the difference we must firmly comprehend so that we’re not led into only the errant pursuits of religion thinking that our devotion to them and our adherence to their standardized rules will achieve for us the ability to perfect wisdom, to attain righteousness, to prove ourselves worthy of receiving salvation as a reward rather than having to accept it as a gift.

The cross proves this faith and the salvation is offers is a gift we cannot earn. Instead, we are saved by faith in Christ and a reliance upon His provision of a lamb fit for atonement. We are saved by Christ's sacrifice, our works done after only testify to the fact that our hearts are now made new. We don't work to earn our salvation; we work to show we've been saved.

Sadly though, many are lost in this mindset telling them that they themselves can become the righteousness that God both demands and deserves. And indeed, we are told in Scripture to "Be holy, because I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16. We are called to be holy as our God is holy. We're implored to live holy lives as He is our source of life and His holiness should show in our lives. But we don't become holy by pretending we're holy. We aren't holy because we do acts most consider good or decent or acceptable.

No friends, as reminded in 2 Corinthians 7:1, we perfect holiness out of reverence for God. When we revere Him above all else, then holiness begins to be shown. When He alone is who we worship, holiness is being perfected in us. When it is He whom we serve, holiness is the only possible reason. We're called to be holy, but we do by glorifying God, not trying to glorify ourselves through works we feel an adequate response to His gift of the Lamb.

Speaking of the Lamb of God, the Son of Man, the Bread of Life, He himself tells us this quite plainly over in Matthew 6:33. "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness." Seek His righteousness, not our own. Not our efforts seeking to prove we can come close. Not our best intentions aimed at making ourselves look good. Not about us, never has been. Never will be.

Seek FIRST HIS kingdom, HIS righteousness. Ours, whatever of it we can ever possibly be will only be because we've sought first Him and His ways and His glory and His praise.

My point is that we're losing the idea that righteousness is a pursuit, not something we can actually perfect. Our pasts prove that without effort. We can never be spotless, blameless, only helpless. But behind this idea that we can measure up through good deeds or eloquent prayers or giving all we have to the poor or listening to only Christian radio or making sure a cross word never crosses our lips, we're forgetting that God already knows we can't be what we owe Him.

We can't be perfect. We can't be holy. We can't be righteous, because our pasts have already been lived. And even should we live every moment we have left in utter perfection, we'd still be unable to undo all we've already done. So we're done. And He knows that. Hence the cross.

Jesus wouldn't have come, wouldn't have carried, wouldn't have cared if we could somehow do it alone. But that He did proves that we can't. And so maybe trying to prove ourselves to Him via efforts given to being overly righteous is among the last things fit for a follower of Christ.

Do not be overly righteous. Do not be overly wise. Be instead humble enough to both admit and accept that He alone is all we’ve never been. He is pure. He is holy. He is righteous. He is wise. He is perfect. We are not, nor shall we ever be. And it’s in that ego-shattering realization that we find the dire necessity of seeking a relationship with Jesus instead of our own righteousness as a means to prove we don’t need Him.

Granted, to not be overly righteous sounds a contradiction when you stop and think about it. And in truth, it's one of those seeming contradictions that I think all of us have happily misused as an excuse to try a little less, be a little lax, a little lackadaisical, to allow for a little latitude in our attitude and attention. Does almost seem to sound like He's okay with our imperfections, and I've literally heard recently people standing in pulpits say as much.

But we forget that He's only pleased with sacrifices without blemish. Why do you think Christ is referred to as the Spotless Lamb? Because our spots, our stains, our scars, our sins are not acceptable. And yet, be not overly righteous.

It's because righteousness isn’t the thing we’re called to worship or honor or serve or glorify, Christ is. As righteousness is something we cannot be nor offer in the measure God deserves, we need Christ more than we need to prove our guilt absolved. We need forgiveness more than we need to feel as if we're not in need of being forgiven. We need His mercy far more than we need to show we don't.

Our ego keeps getting in the way, and that's why He tells us to not be overly righteous. Because He knows that we'll idolize our efforts to show ourselves righteous rather than worshipping the only One who has ever lived the kind of life that God created us to live. We're called to be righteous, but we'll only ever come close to the way that leads us closer to it when we lay ourselves down and take up our crosses, following the One who died in our place.

You see, we’re not asked to revere righteousness. We're not saved by seeking righteousness. We're not called into relationship with righteousness but with Jesus. And while yes, God calls us to be righteous, that’s not something we can accomplish on our own through religious adherence or good works or personal piety. No, righteousness is the byproduct of the Holy Spirit working in us.

The goal isn’t to prove ourselves righteous enough to satisfy God. The goal is to seek refuge in Christ through a relationship built on trusting in Him, firmly knowing that without Him nothing we do means a thing. As we grow in Him, we will grow in righteousness as the Holy Spirit guides us away from our normal wickedness toward words and actions and mindsets that are indeed more righteous. But we’re not to get to the point where we worship or serve or seek righteousness above our dependency upon Him to be all we can never become.

We’re to worship and seek and serve God above everything, and righteousness will grow along the way.

Pursue righteousness is what we're asked to do in several places throughout Scripture. To pursue it. Not under this arrogant assumption that we can find it, but under the realization that it's only found when we're found in Christ. It all always comes back to Jesus and whether or not we are relying upon Him, trusting in Him, honoring Him, serving Him, revering Him, sharing Him, seeking Him.

And that's why we're told to not let righteousness get in the way. It's merely a result of our faith, not where our faith is to be placed. Because honestly, we're more than happy to try it that way. That's what we talked about yesterday. We love trusting in ourselves because we can claim the glory should we come anywhere close to getting something right. We can boast whenever we do well. We can puff our chests and look down our noses on the heathens we feel we've risen above through our good deeds and pious acts.

But only when we're so overly righteous that we feel we've proven ourselves worthy of honor and glory and therefore His promise. Yet, they're not things we deserve, so trying to earn them is the epitome of foolishness.

Trying to prove ourselves righteous through strict adherence to religious rules, personal ideals, social expectations, even the memorization of Scripture and the singing of only hymns and the pouring out of good works for all the world to see only invites the risk of us keeping ourselves first and seeking a reward rather than a gift. Our being righteous brings with it our feeling entitled to a trophy. But our humility prays for His kindness which makes open to us a promise we know we can't earn.

We will destroy ourselves if we keep trying to prove ourselves. We are called to be righteous, to be holy, but those are things which cannot be proven under our own ability or through our own words or in our own actions. They're shown in increasing measure as we humbly go along following behind the only One who can ever satisfy God's wrath for all we've already done against Him.

The bottom line is that righteousness, wisdom, morality, decency, truth are not found in us. Our pasts prove that. No, they're found in Christ, and that's why we must build a relationship reliant upon Him, not upon our ability to show we don't need that much of Him.

We need as much of His mercy and provision as we can get. But first we have to get ourselves out of this line of thinking that has us convinced we might be able to make it to where He's asked us to be on our own. We can't. Time to stop trying to prove otherwise, because the assumption of our potential for personal purity and even possible perfection only prevents us from pursuing the path paved by the only One whose proven able to overcome the penalty and punishment we’ve already earned.

Friends, neither wisdom nor righteousness should ever be allowed to become an idol as they’ll only deepen our ego if they become our goal because our arrogance will happily continue telling us that we can get there on our own accord. The goal is Christ, and our assumption that we can become righteous without Him will only keep us from leaning on Him. Clearly not the way to build a relationship with Him.

And we need that relationship as He is truly our only hope.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold