There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside Thee; – 1Sa 2:2
Are you righteous? If yes, how righteous are you? The dictionary meaning
of ‘righteous’ is “always behaving according to a religious or moral code.” Does
that then make the Dalai Lama righteous? What about Mother Theresa? Or a Hasidic
Jew maybe? They are each strict observers of a “moral and religious code”,
aren’t they?
The singular difference between biblical Christianity and other world religions
is its acknowledgment of the infinite holiness of God and its frank admittance
of the impossibility of Man to reach it.
To use a high jump analogy, God’s standard is a 100-foot horizontal pole,
obviously impossible for any human to clear. But religion creates its own bar,
somewhere around 8 feet, (moral laws, rules, rituals, regulations, ceremonies,
prayers, etc.) that can be jumped by only the most athletic of men. Religion
then creates a platform that celebrates such extreme athleticism – the jumping
of their 8-foot pole. Fixated on this manmade standard, the people are
kept ignorant of the REAL pole looming a hundred feet high above all of them.
This is “Religion” in a nutshell; and until we confront this reality, we
will not understand biblical righteousness.
To read the Mosaic Laws as outlined in Exodus through Deuteronomy and
exclaim that God’s standards are too difficult is to miss the point completely.
Those are not God’s standards, they are just a rudimentary and vague hint of
His actual holiness and standards.
Only Jesus truly understood God’s perfect holiness; and that was why He
declared that except our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, we shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven, (Mt 5:20).
This is very important, because it places God’s standards where it
should be. God will not reduce His standard from “impossible” to “very
difficult and hard”. And if your philosophy and mindset of Holiness/Righteousness
is of a lifestyle that though “very difficult and hard”, but still doable with discipline
and dedication, you may want to reconsider your definition of righteousness;
because you may have unwittingly lowered the bar... to somewhere around 8 feet.
AMEN.
More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN
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