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Thread: Christians thinking like humanists and an improper understanding of righteousness

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    Christians thinking like humanists and an improper understanding of righteousness

    Is there a connection ? Yes, definitely.

    The default condition of the sinner is that he knows that he is sinful but he at least tries to be good enough and do good enough that God shouldn't be able to judge him for the result. This includes doing good works and not sinning too often and especially not for too long.

    Some Christians have an improper understanding of righteousness and have transferred the whole dynamic to their Christian walk. Yes, they have placed their faith in Christ being a perfect substitutionary sacrifice covering the sins of their former, very sinful life. They have also bettered themselves in the sense that they are doing more good works, they are not sinning too often and especially not for too long. Even if that doesn't make their walk perfect, God should look at that and conclude that it isn't that bad. It is far more righteous than the walk of the one Christ had to die for or else that person would go to hell. God can look at it and say that since the person believes in Jesus and his walk is mostly pretty good and not too sinful or for too long, therefore God should be well pleased and there is no danger of being sent to hell if one dies in the near future. Or so they think.

    What they don't understand is that God's tolerance for sin is absolute zero. He doesn't tolerate it to any degree, ever. He doesn't tolerate that someone's deeper character is influenced by sin to any degree, either. He only tolerates flawless righeousness through and through and that is what he saw in his Son, including in his walk on Earth.

    The "me and my walk are good enough for God since I do believe in Jesus" Christian will typically object to that and start thinking like a humanist. God should be okay with those who are religiously correct, who have repented to Jesus and who try to be and do righteousness in their own power even though their standards are nowhere near flawless. How could God be so evil as to not accept that when their walk is clearly better than the rest of the world and so much better than the one they used to be before they became religious ? How could he even want to judge them for that and send them to hell over it ? No, they expect to stand before God and watch as God tells them that they were good enough, one part belief in Jesus, one part pretty good own righteousness and God is well pleased with them. God is going to be offended by that and there may be some degree of loss of rewards involved.

    So should we abandon that thought entirely, that we should at least try to be somewhat righteous and do righteous works to some degree ? Nope. Well, how is that ?

    The key is to understand that God is only pleased with his Son and only because his righeousness is flawless. If he sees his Son in the person, if his Son really is there by his Holy Spirit on account of real faith in Christ being present in the heart, then he sees his Son's righteousness instead of the person's own flawed righteousness. In addition to that, Christ is supposed to work his way through the heart as a leaven develops through a dough. And to live through the person, producing righteous works in His power. And to overcome sin in the person so that the person's walk is void of sin. It's all about Christ being allowed to operate. When he does, he will strengthen the person's faith and there is a stable equilibrium rather than the typical experience of the "Jesus plus my own works" Christian where he is much more prone to simply stepping out of a Christian walk according to his own power and over into being and doing sin to a large degree and not just to the small degree that he previously thought was within bounds. The stability of the equilibrium is in part derived from the fact that one considers Jesus' flawless righteousness as the only standard that God actually accepts. The lower, humanistically inspired standard of the "Jesus plus my own works" Christian is easier to stretch until it encompasses a more sinful walk than it originally did and he may also get tired of it and simply step out of it.

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