Righteous vs Wicked: The Meaning of Righteousness.
Proverbs 21:3; Deuteronomy 31:30
Proverbs 21:3 To do
righteousness and justice Is desired by the LORD
more than sacrifice.
We continue our study in Proverbs but
we are not going to be in any particular passage. But we will look at Proverbs
11:7-11 briefly as we begin.
One of the issues that come up continuously
in our thinking about the Christian life is the matter of personal
righteousness. Some of us have come from a background where to speak of
personal or experiential righteousness has sometimes been thought to be
legalistic— ÒOh, you are just emphasizing all those things that you have
to do; that is just legalism.Ó That is a distortion of the understanding of Scripture.
There is a common misconception, i.e. if I am filled with the Spirit then
somehow the Spirit takes over my volition and I will just somehow by some sort
of mystical power want to do and do the right thing. And I donÕt really have to
engage my volition to make hard choices—difficult ethical and moral
choices—to implement the Word of God in my life. If I just take in the
Word of God under the power of God the Holy Spirit then the Holy Spirit is
going to automatically produce fruit in my life and automatically I will obey.
That distortion has been taught by many
different Christian organizations over time and it has led to a lot of
frustration for a lot of Christians because they have sort of fallen into this
trap of thinking that if I just let go and let God He will just take over, and
when I get into a difficult temptation environment I wonÕt really have to say
no, that if I am really filled with the Spirit He will say no for me. And somehow that really never happens
and that leads to a certain amount of frustration and failure in the Christian
life.
It is important to understand that the Holy
Spirit strengthens us but He is not going to make the decision for us. He is
not going to take over our volition, He is simply going to give you a reminder
of what the Word of God teaches, and strengthen us so that if we are willing to
make the hard decision it wonÕt be quite as hard as if we didnÕt have the Holy
Spirit like folks in the Old Testament. We still have to make those decisions.
There are multiple volition points in our study of the Word of God. There is
the decision to be in fellowship and to confess our sins. There is the decision
to come to Bible class or to turn on the Internet, or whatever, to study the
Word on a regular basis. There is a decision to believe that what the Bible
teaches is true. And when we do that under the power of God the Holy Spirit
then the Scripture says that becomes a Òfull knowledgeÓ in our soul—the
Greek word epignosis. But then we
have to apply it in real life situations. That involves making a decision to do
what the Word of God says to do even when we donÕt want to do it. Even when we
are attracted to sinful options we have to make a decision not to do
that—whether it is to commit some emotional sin like anger or bitterness,
a sin of the tongue such as gossip or slander, or whether it is to commit some
overt sin. We have to choose to not do what the Scripture says not to do. That
is not legalism; that is living the Christian life. It is what is called
experiential righteousness, if we are going to use a theological term.
All through the book of Proverbs we have this
contrast between the righteous and the wicked. It is easy for some people to
think that what is meant here by the righteous and the wicked are those who are
positionally righteous and those who are positionally wicked. The trouble with
that is it leads to that kind of pseudo spirituality, that mystical idea
mentioned above that somehow if I am in fellowship it is just going to
automatically happen. No, we have to make those tough decisions.
We see that this contrast between
righteousness and wickedness is seen in Proverbs chapter eleven. It goes
throughout the entire book of Proverbs but we will look at this one section
because it emphasizes it.
Proverbs 11:7 NASB
ÒWhen a wicked man dies, {his} expectation will perish, And the hope of strong
men perishes.Ó That word ÒunjustÓ is the negative form of righteous. Then in
contrast, [8] ÒThe righteous is delivered from trouble ÉÓ This we will
see directly affects how we approach adversity. If we are living on the basis
of experiential righteousness (as we do what the Word of God says) it changes
our options down the road. If we live on the basis of GodÕs Word then what we
discover is not that our life is free from trouble or heartache or difficulty
but the self-induced misery that comes from our own bad decisions becomes very
restricted. As we go through life, though we may experience adversity that
comes from other quarters we donÕt experience as much of the self-induced
garbage that we bring upon ourselves. And so life becomes a lot better and a
lot more enjoyable. ÒÉ But the
wicked takes his place.Ó That is, it comes to the wicked instead. They heap
misery upon themselves.
Proverbs 11:9 NASB
ÒWith {his} mouth the godless man destroys his neighbor ÉÓ That is an example
of the wicked using slander to assault his neighbor. ÒÉ But through knowledge
[of the Word of God] the righteous will be delivered. [10]
When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices ÉÓ In other words, when
the righteous, because he is living in obedience to GodÕs Word, experiences the
temporal blessing that comes as a result of obedience. This has various consequences
that come with it. So in association with the believer who is walking on the
basis of wisdom and living a righteous life, those around that believer are
blessed by that association. ÒÉ And when the wicked perish, there is joyful
shouting.Ó That is, when the wicked disappears, when they die there is
jubilation because they have brought misery into everybodyÕs life around them.
Proverbs 11:11 NASB ÒBy the blessing of the
upright a city is exalted, But by the mouth of the wicked it is torn down.Ó
As we look at these
verses we see that there is this contrast between the righteous and the wicked,
and the righteous is the person in the context of Proverbs is the person who is
living on the basis of wisdom. He is learning the Word of God, he is living his
life in the fear of the Lord, and as a result of that his life is blessed by
God—not because of his personal righteousness but because of his
spiritual growth and the capacity that has been developed.
This concept of
righteousness is one that we have to understand, so we are we are going to get
into an introduction—the first two points about righteousness, looking at
the meaning of righteousness, and then we will look at the experiential aspect
in detail.
1.
Defining
the concept of righteousness. The basic idea in the Hebrew word tzedeq is to
be straight, and it indicates a norm or a standard. It indicates activity that
conforms to a specific norm or standard. In many cases this is an ethical or
moral standard and in the Scripture it refers to a spiritual standard that has
its ultimate reference point in terms of the character of God. Psalm 145:17 NASB
ÒThe LORD is righteous in all His ways And kind [Holy] in all His
deeds.Ó Notice the parallelism there. The first line says the Lord is righteous
in all His ways. Parallel to that He is holy in all His works--holy is parallel
to righteous. Holy is a term that includes righteousness and here it is used as
a synonym. Righteous means God is perfectly just, perfectly right or correct in
all that He does. This is embedded in His character.
We
live in a world today where we have lost sight of any sort of external absolute
standard for right and wrong. Right and wrong is often portrayed as being
culturally determined. If you are from an African culture then you have one set
of values. From an Asian culture you have another set of values. If you are
from a pagan, witchcraft background you have another set of values. If you are
from a secular humanistic background you have another set of values. And every
value is equal, it doesnÕt matter who you are. Unless, of course, you violate
some social norm—and those change from generation to generation.
The
problem with the discussion is that nobody understands the sin nature. Modern
culture in America starts from accepting the idea that everybody is basically
good, and that if we can just reform everybody we can have a perfect society
and perfect culture. This is completely false. Scripture teaches that all of us
have sinned and come short of the essence of God. We are all failures. That
doesnÕt mean we justify our failure, rationalize our failure, or in some sort
of licentious mentality say, well Jesus paid for our sins, so what the É we are
just going to do whatever we want to do. Why go through the struggle of obeying
Scripture? This is not a testimony to some sort of justification for any of
these social sins but we have to recognize the mentality that produces this
whole politically correct social sin framework, and that is this idealism that
we can have a utopic environment and can produce perfection. It canÕt happen;
it wonÕt happen, and the purveyors of social utopianism today are leading us
down a path of destruction because this is the height of human arrogance. And
it is so pervasive today in politics and in higher education that it is
impossible for any of us to escape it.
Once
you get away from the objective framework for understanding righteousness then
you are left in just a morass of subjectivity. What do we mean by subjectivity?
Subjectivity is the idea that there is no objective external standard of right
or wrong but that the standard for right or wrong is what I feel, what I think,
what I come up with from my own experience. So you then sub-divide or balkanize
the culture into all of these different minorities, each one of which has their
own value. But even though we have done that we still come along with some sort
of externally acceptable standard that one group tries to impose upon another.
This, in America, is a violation of the First Amendment which guarantees
freedom from any kind of government interference.
The
Bible teaches that righteousness refers to an external absolute standard that
man is to conform with. The word tzedeq refers to this concept of GodÕs
righteousness, His absolute perfection in all things.
2.
There
are four categories of righteousness. That is difficult for us to distinguish
sometimes as we read the Word of God. We have different meaning to the same
word. There are many different words that we use in English that have multiple
meanings. For example, the word Òtrunk.Ó It can describe the nose of an
elephant, a large box where people put their clothing and belongings, or a
trunk line which is the base line of telephone or electricity that divides up
later on. It can also refer to the compartment on the rear of an automobile. So
we can read a paragraph where somebody uses the word trunk several different
ways, and because of our knowledge of the English language our brain
automatically sifts those different meanings and we recognize that in one
sentence trunk means one thing, the next it means something else, and the next
something else. We do that automatically. Righteousness is no different. If we
study the Word of God we can discover four different types of righteousness.
a.
The first is the category of
absolute righteousness. It describes the character of God. Deuteronomy 32:4 NASB
ÒThe Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of
faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.Ó The word
ÒrighteousÓ is tzedeq,
and the word ÒuprightÓ is the word yashar which means straight, in line, or
conforming to an external standard. Something is straight because it aligns
with an external standard of what straight or righteous is.
2
Chronicle 12:6 NASB ÒSo the princes of Israel and the king humbled
themselves and said, ÒThe LORD
is righteous.Ó This refers to an incidence of disobedience in the life of
Israel. The context is a time right after the breakup of Israel into the ten
tribes in the north, Israel, and the southern kingdom of Judah. This was a time
when God was announcing a judgment upon Rehoboam because of his sin and failure
to follow the law [Torah] of the Lord. The law was to instruct Israel on how to
live as GodÕs people. He had abandoned the instruction of the Lord through the
Torah, the law given to Moses. As a result he was coming under assault from
foreign powers (as per Leviticus 26). Verse 5, ÒThen Shemaiah the prophet came
to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of
Shishak, and he said to them, ÔThus says the LORD,
ÔYou have forsaken Me, so I also have forsaken you to Shishak.ÕÓ The result was
that the leaders responded correctly (v. 6). So the Lord minimizes the
punishment in v. 7. The point is that in humbling themselves they recognized
the righteousness, the character of God.
Psalm
11:7 NASB ÒFor the LORD
is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face.Ó
Righteousness is part of His essence, His character. He defines that standard
of righteousness. Without an external standard of right and wrong we canÕt even
talk about right and wrong. A problem with relativism is that when you deny an
external reference point you canÕt even use the terms right and wrong. [3] ÒIf
the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?Ó In the foundation of
the Word of God is destroyed then there is not much that the righteous can do.
We live in the midst of the collapse of a culture or the collapse of a
civilization, which is our situation today, and the foundations of truth, the
foundations of the Word of God, have been destroyed through the last 150 years
of the influence of secularism, atheism, humanism, evolutionism, sociology,
psychology, all forms of relativistic thought. And so once the foundations have
been destroyed it becomes extremely difficult for the righteous to live and to
apply the Word of God because we become marginalized, ostracized and rejected,
and we become defined as the enemy of the nation. People who are holding to
absolutes will always be hated by people who hold to relative values because
they stand as a source of conviction to their conscience.
But
we must be reminded of the absolute circumstances of God. Psalm 11:4 NASB
ÒThe LORD is in His holy temple; the LORDÕS
throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.Ó The
Ôeyes of GodÕ is always a reference to His knowledge. He is not unaware of what
is going on and He is testing mankind. This is a test for humanity, whether
they will obey or disobey God. [5] ÒThe LORD
tests the righteous ÉÓ He tests the righteous to see if they will be obedient
in the midst of adversity. ÒÉ and the wicked And the one who loves violence His
soul hates.Ó God rejects them. [6] ÒUpon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire
and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup.Ó Ultimately
there will be justice and God will bring judgment upon the wicked. Why can we
say this? Because Yahweh is righteous, v. 7.
So as we look at just the
beginning of our study on righteousness we have to understand this first
category (as far as we could get this time): that GodÕs character is the
absolute standard of what is right and what is wrong. When we get through this
study we see from Proverbs that the righteous is the one who lives his life in
conformity and obedience to the character of God. Ultimately that mean in
conformity to His instruction from His Word.
The result of this is
what the writer of Proverbs will emphasize. If we want a rich, full life. If we
want to have the blessing of God. If we want to experience all that God has for
us then it is based upon living our life on the basis of GodÕs Word—which
presupposes that we know GodÕs Word. Which calls upon each of us to make sure
that study of GodÕs Word is a high priority in our life.