RIghteousness Flows

I’ve been considering the topic of righteousness lately. It is one of those words that doesn’t really register with meaning in my brain. The first image I associate with the word is of an old surfer drawling “RIGHTeoussss!” as an exclamation of approval. The second is of a Puritan preacher in a wig hunting for old-fashioned words at random to fill his homily the next morning. Righteous sounds good, yes? Rightness. Right standing before God. Right action. Who doesn’t like being right?

Maybe the word doesn’t resonate because the stuff is in such short supply. Or maybe it feels too unattainable. What does righteousness have to do with being a human on planet earth? Nice idea for theologians and philosophers. Put it on the top shelf for the philosophers and moralists. It doesn’t ring a bell down here. I imagine an advertising group discussing how to sell a product as “the righteous choice.”

Here’s another layer. A Christian stumbles on the word and catches a whiff of its importance and decides to live a righteous life (whatever that means). Fail. Then he decides this life needs more definition, so he decides to do some specific stuff. He picks a few low-hanging fruit. He starts going to church, volunteers at the food pantry, gives money to a homeless guy, and tries to clean up his life while silently judging those less committed than him. Epic fail.

Finally, he learns that righteousness is imputed, or given by God. What was he thinking, forcing his way into legalistic righteousness? So he listens to some sermons and reads some books about Jesus’ righteousness on our behalf. Our Christian begins to breathe easy. Righteousness is from GOD. He begins to enjoy thinking of himself this way. He is holy because Jesus was holy. He is righteous because Jesus is righteous. He relaxes. This brings joy and a deep sense of peace. Of course, he would still love to behave righteously in a perfect world, and he feels he is growing, but he is trying to come out of law-thinking and embrace the grace life. He is glad God accepts him where he is on his journey. He is learning to accept himself there as well.

One sunny day, he notices his joy is waning. The thrill of imputed righteousness doesn’t quite cut it anymore. God is there, yes. Our Christian knows he is loved and accepted. But his conscience still bothers him. Some of his recent actions don’t seem quite like the Jesus he wants to become. He is forgiven and accepted on his journey exactly where he is... so why do his actions still bother him?

That old prophet Amos said this:
But let justice roll down like waters,
  and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24)

Righteousness flows. That’s an amazing thing to think about. Imagine righteousness not as a philosophical virtue, but as a flowing stream—an energetic substance in constant motion, always going from one place to another. A river has never stopped to consider its next move. The moment it does, it stops being a river. We think of practical, lived righteousness as an Old Testament concept. Imputed righteousness is the latest craze: a stamp of God’s approval flowing from the New Covenant grace of Jesus and completely divorced from what my actions—whether good or bad—actually are. This is Paul’s new righteousness, one that “appears” apart from works of the law and is simply “received” by faith. So why do we still live in unrighteousness and internal turmoil? Should we kill our bothersome conscience along with the old man?

Let’s say this: the writers of scripture don’t talk about two kinds of righteousness. Theologians talk about imputed or practical righteousness to help us understand two facets of the same thing, but the reality is ALL righteousness is given. It flows freely from its headwaters in God himself. How silly to think righteousness could ever start in the broken cistern of my humanity! Nevertheless, God expects righteousness from us. Isaiah said God was “appalled” that there was no one working alongside him in his righteous cause. He was surprised that humans were so universally wicked. Didn’t He make them in His image? Of course sin messed it all up, but they were still “made a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honor.” Had they so quickly forgotten how to partner with that energetic flow of God’s righteousness on the earth? All the prophets in the Old Testament record God’s dismay at the unrighteousness of His people. This isn’t right! People should be righteous! They ought to do better. There is no excuse given that our nature still bears God’s image.

But seeing how dire the situation was, God made a choice to not just put on a body but to really become a human being. He demonstrated righteousness like a physical therapist teaching you to walk again, or a coach teaching you to play ball. See? It’s easy. Just do this, then this, then that. Now you try it. Got it? No?

This is where he tells his disciples they better display a righteousness that looked and smelled better than the play-acting righteous façade of the Pharisees. My pastor preached yesterday that when Jesus said that, he meant practical righteousness, not Pauline imputed righteousness. I’m arguing here that it is all the same stuff.

I say that because even John the Beloved writes,

“Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.”

All righteousness is practical. There has never been impractical righteousness. It’s not a filler word for a sermon. It is love in action, justice in motion, a flowing river of grace that manifests itself in a thousand forms through people who know they are bought with a price and no longer have the right to choose their daily action.

I don’t have the right to tell God “no thanks, I think I’ll live for pleasure today. Thanks in advance for your grace.” I’m dead with Jesus in the grave, new with him in resurrected life, expressing my radical freedom in my total slavery to him. Does this old bag of bones have any hope of actually doing the right thing today? Heck yeah. God lives inside here and all things are possible with God. Oh Lord, let your righteousness roll right through me like an ever-flowing, never-stopping stream today!

Here is where I get tripped up so easily. I wake up in the morning, already feeling condemned just because I’m tired, drank too much last night, had a weird dream, and am just not feeling it. But I know I have to get to this place of doing some good in the world, so I start planning. Some part of me feels righteousness would be easier if I could plan it out in advance. At 12:30, I’ll find a homeless person and buy him a hot dog. Check. At 3 p.m., I’ll give a listening ear to a friend and offer to pray for him. Check. At 4 p.m. I’ll keep my cool when I trip over my son’s shoes on the laundry room floor again even though we’ve had this conversation a million times, and patiently instruct him for his own good and not because I’m pissed. Check, check. Woo! Righteousness unlocked!

We both know it doesn’t work that way. Righteousness is a flowing relational process. It requires maintained relational proximity (this part IS a choice) to the source of righteousness, because just as quickly as water finds the lowest ground to flow through, that is how quickly we must choose to do the right thing. Righteousness happens in a split-second choice. Left or right? Decide now or the choice will be gone and you’ll be on to the next thing. Dam up righteousness and it becomes a stagnant pool of entitlement. Let it flow. It wants to work, to water the world and create life.

Practically, what am I suggesting you do?

1. Change your categories. Stop thinking of righteousness as either lived or given. It is both.

2. Stop thinking you’ll never do the right thing. Look in the mirror! God in you. He’s willing and working in you to do the stuff that makes him proud. “Righteoussss!”

3. Lose your mind. Lose your will. And lose your life again today. I don’t care if you did it last night. Surrender again for what Paul calls the “surpassing value” of knowing Christ.

4. Come back to the present. The time to choose a right action isn’t after you finish this cup of coffee. It is NOW. Either it is the cup of coffee, or you are using the coffee to delay what you know you must do. Every moment has value and purpose. Begin asking God what this moment is for.

5. Just do it. Don’t do it because you think you’re so hot. Do it for the right reason—but do it nevertheless. We are saved by grace but judged for what we do. Our actions display our hearts. So why not train ourselves for righteousness through the constant use of it? Sure, it won’t always feel easy. But I’d rather be trained like a dog than sit around like a king who has no earthly clue.

If I decide to enjoy the positional blessings of the Christian life without the actions of the Christian life, I should be pitied as Paul says, “above all people.” If it is all justification without resurrection power, then poor me indeed! If I choose not to really go along with God in my lifestyle choices, I might not lose my spot in heaven, but I’ll certainly lose everything else! 

In his letter to Ephesus, Paul reminds children that obeying their parents is actually for their good—that they might enjoy long life in the land. If obedience to human parents causes kids to flourish, then what would happen if I always obeyed my heavenly Father who actually has my greatest good in mind at all times? Would my life feel like a bummer, full of self-flagellating sacrifice, letting everyone walk over me like a rug? Or would I find the most delightful and divine peace and enjoyment, knowing whose I am?