The righteousness of God

There are certain passages in the Bible that stand out when I read them or at least they always cause me to think whenever I hear them. At times, they can even cause me to cringe. I know I am not the only one. One such passage is from the book of Hebrews, and it says “But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him” (Hebrews 10:38). The part that always feel uneasy is the one about God not being pleased with those who shrink back. This week, another similar passage popped up in my Bible reading time and it was in Ezekiel. The LORD was telling the people of Israel that He is a just God. He said “If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it. And if a wicked man turns away from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by doing so.” (Ezekiel 33:18-19). The response of the people of Israel in hearing this word from God was to accuse God of not being just in His ways. The audacity we sometimes have to insinuate we understand justice better than God is ludicrous. In truth, I too, have thought like the people of Israel many times and their questions reminded me of my own. Today, I want to share the understanding I got from this passage and those likeminded passages that can sometimes feel off-putting in the hopes to encourage you to embrace the whole counsel of God.

For the first time I read that Ezekiel passage with more understanding. It’s as though I had a revelation of the character of God. If you are like me, you probably read verses 18-19 like God is saying that He will not be pleased with the righteous who has fallen and returns to Him but will only be pleased with the wicked who has returned to Him. When this is not what the LORD is saying. The God of the universe, Creator of heaven and earth is letting us know what His character is like. He is a God who is righteous and does not walk in anything that is not righteous. He is the God of justice, and everything that is slightly tainted or corrupt He does not walk in it. He is that pure. So, when He says He will turn away from the righteous man who turns away from the good and does evil, it is simply because He is a God who does not dwell where evil is and evil has consequences. He has no dealings with evil except to punish it and eradicate it from His world. If there is a place where you are certain to find God, it is in righteousness and Christ like character. Anything that is good, just, kind, gentle, transparent, fair, pleasant, joyful, enjoyable, not rushed, peaceful, forgiving, welcoming, and the likes are places where you are certain to find God for, He delights in these attitudes and attributes. So indeed, when God is speaking to the Israelites, He is simply reiterating what He has already told them in the past and because the idea of forgiveness is so difficult for us to grasp, especially when it comes to the forgiveness of wicked people, we conclude that God is unjust. 

I am reminded of the workers of the eleventh-hour in the parable of Jesus from the book of Matthew (Matthew 20:1-16). These eleventh-hour workers were hired at the same rate as the workers who started at the first hour. All workers agreed to the same day rate. Now at the end of the day, when it was time to repay his workers their wages, the master started with the eleventh-hour workers and paid them the rate they had agreed to. When the early hours workers saw that the master was paying the eleventh-hour workers with the same rate, they wrongly assumed they would get an increase since they had worked more hours than the eleventh-hour workers. Yet, when their turn came to be paid, they too received the same rate they had agreed with the master at the start of their work. At the end of the day, all workers had been paid the same. The workers who worked the whole day were not happy with the master and grumbled as though the master had not acted righteously towards them. Their reaction is similar to many of ours when we read such passages because we think like them. We too believe the situation was unfair, and they should have been paid at a higher rate than the late workers. Yet, the whole-day workers were paid justly what had been agreed. This is how God operates. He is a just God and He will do to you as He has promised. In this story, He did exactly what He promised to both groups. Similarly, to the people of Israel, He remained true to Himself for He stayed within His boundaries. He does not dwell in unrighteousness and therefore, will not tolerate wickedness. However, the one who repents and turns away from its wickedness, He will gladly welcome but the one who turns away from righteousness to do wickedness, He will not welcome. The truth of the matter is that God is concerned with enduring until the end. He is concerned with diligence and faithfulness. He wants His children to wait for Him, wait for His salvation, to trust in Him completely. We are called to remain on the path of righteousness and when we derail, we have to be quick to return on that path for God is for the righteous. Just as the book of Proverbs points it, there are certain elements that are only reserved for the righteous, one of those is wisdom or knowledge or understanding. There is no way you will find that in a wicked person. Therefore, in our walk with the LORD, we can be confident that if we remain in Him, we will bear much fruit. Indeed, as Jesus said, we did not choose him, but he chose us so that we would bear fruit that will last (John 15:16). This is what we were created to do, seek righteousness, walk in it, obey the LORD, imitate Him, display His character: His love, mercy, goodness, justice, and so on.

I have come to realize that much of our difficulty with the word of God is because we have a preconceived, often wrong idea of who God is and we judge Him based on those notions we have. This is completely false, and we ought to learn to see Him as the Bible portrays Him. The word of God is the barometer by which we can know whether or not we know God, not how we feel, what we think He is, what our peers or family members think they know about Him, we have to know God for ourselves, and He has made that possible. In Christ, the fullness of God dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9). We need to submit to Jesus and learn about Him daily. This is the lifelong journey of the Christian –those who have repented of their sins, believed that Jesus died on the cross to take away their sins and cleanse them from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9), giving them his righteousness and a new identity as children of God. It is a journey that cannot be a sprint, it is a race, that has a victorious ending as long as we remain in the race. May the God of all flesh teach us to learn about Him from His word and to submit to His teaching. May He also cause us to humbly ask Him for answers when we don’t understand and to change our hearts to accept His teaching when it is hard. Amen.