This is a snippet from an email I sent to Tim Elam, as he and I are both reading The Pleasures of God. This is his first time through and my second. I hope this is a blessing in some way.
My Meditation: Righteousness
Here’s something I found incredibly thought-provoking, and yet very practical: What is the essence of righteousness? In Protestant doctrine, we believe that our sin was transferred to Christ at His death, and Christ’s righteousness is imputed to our accounts at the moment we repent of our state of sin and place our faith in Christ, therefore God can legally declare us to be righteous (c.f., Romans 3). That is the Protestant doctrine of justification. Catholics believe in infused righteousness, that is, that Christ’s righteousness is applied to our account as we take part in the sacraments, and our sins are transferred to Christ as we confess them at each confession. Every time we go to confession, all our sins, up to that point, are transferred to Christ and we receive grace through confession and are declared righteous at that moment until we commit a “mortal” sin.
My point is not to discuss Catholic dogma vs. Protestant theology, but to bring up this question: What is the essence of righteousness? Is it some static, impersonal attribute, such as God’s omnipotence or His immutability? Or is it a personal attribute, something He not only possesses but performs?
“There is none righteous, no, not even one,” Romans 3 tells us. What does Paul use to illustrate such UNrighteousness? “There is none who seeks after God.”
Now, it may be deduced from this passage that part of righteousness, at least, involves seeking after God. Here is where Chapter One comes in from The Pleasures of God (I found it helpful to read this slowly and aloud):
God must love and delight in His own beauty and perfection above all things. For us to do this in front of the mirror is the essence of vanity; for God to do this is in front of His Son is the essence of righteousness.
Is not the essence of righteousness to place supreme value on what is supremely valuable, with all the just actions that follow? And isn’t the opposite to set our highest affections on things of little or no worth, with all the unjust actions that follow? Thus the righteousness of God is the infinite zeal and joy and pleasure that He has in what is supremely valuable, namely, His own perfection and worth. And if He were ever to act contrary to this eternal passion for His own perfections He would be unrighteous, He would be an idolater.
This is not irrelevant speculation. It is the foundation of all Christian hope: In this God-centered, divine righteousness lies the greatest obstacle to our salvation. For how shall such a righteous God ever set His affection on sinners like us who have scorned His perfections? But the wonder of the gospel is that in this divine righteousness lies also the very foundation of our salvation. The infinite regard that the Father has for the Son makes it possible for me, a wicked sinner, to be loved and accepted in the Son, because in His death He vindicated the worth and glory of His Father.
The fact that the pleasure of God in His Son is pleasure in Himself is not vanity. It is the gospel. (pp. 43-44, par. 2-4)
There you have it: The essence of righteousness is “to place supreme value on what is supremely valuable, with all the just actions that follow.” So Romans 5:19 is all the more beautiful and makes more sense: “For as through the one man’s [Adam’s] disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One [Christ] the many will be made righteous.”
And the application: If we are made righteous at salvation, what else does it mean but that we become Christian Hedonists? Not just people who say they desire God, but people whose very actions epitomize their delirious lovesickness for God. See the following verse in Romans 5:21:
So that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That verse in itself is worth an extended email, but alas, time has gotten away from me (as usual). But here’s the formula for you to follow my thinking on that verse:
- Grace = The pleasure of God to magnify the worth of God by giving sinners the right and power to delight in God without obscuring the glory of God.
- Righteousness = To place supreme value on what is supremely valuable, with all the just actions that follow.
- Eternal Life = Knowing God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. (John 17:3).
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