What about the “righteous” people in Scripture?

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent sermons. We’re continuing our series in the Psalms, looking at when and how to pray. And this last week, we looked at Psalm 25, which, uh, among other things, discusses the importance of humility in our prayers. That God leads the humble, um, that those who fear God are God’s friend. Um, a posture of, um, confessing our sins before God, not trying to stand on our own righteousness, but to stand on nothing in ourselves, to stand only on God’s steadfast love for us. And so the question comes in this week, what do we do, um, with, with other Psalms and other places in the Bible that seem to indicate that, um, certain people were standing on their own righteousness? Psalm 26, for instance, says, you know, I am blameless, I have walked uprightly, so vindicate me. Um, don’t wash me away with the, with my enemies. Uh, or Job says, I mean, the book of Job, God himself actually calls Job righteous. Um, so what are we to do with that?

Are they really righteous? Can they stand on their own righteousness? Or is it Romans 3, there, there is none righteous, no, not one. So what do we do with Romans 3 saying there’s none, none righteous, no, not one, versus Job, who God says is righteous, versus something like Psalm 26, uh, where, where the psalmist is saying, I’m blameless in my ways, don’t wash me away with these people who have really done a lot wrong. Um, it’s probably layers to a response. Um, and so I think in the immediate context of Job, for instance, which probably applies to Psalm 26 as well, um, Job’s complaint is that he’s done nothing to deserve specifically the, the, the evil that has befallen him. Um, what Satan has done to him and his family and his businesses. He did not do anything to specifically deserve that.

In that way, he is righteous. There is, I mean, there are ways we can sin. I mean, if we, right, if we start lying all the time, and then our friends don’t want to be our friends anymore, we get fired, we would say, well, I, I caused that, right? I, it was my fault that my friends don’t want to be my friends and I got fired.

Like, I’ve done it. Um, so in that way, I’m not righteous. But if you’ve always told the truth at work and with your friends, and then you get, and then you get fired for lying, you would say, well, hey, wait a minute, I’m righteous. I, I didn’t lie. Uh, I’ve been truthful. So it’s, it’s not fair that I’m getting fired for lying when I didn’t lie.

You’d say that’s unjust. And so I think that’s what’s going on in Job for sure. Um, and then probably places like Psalm 26, uh, because, because the psalmist is saying, vindicate me against these enemies. I haven’t done what they’re, what they have said that I am doing. Um, and so in that way, I’m blameless.

So that’s the specific context there. Um, but then as we say all the time, um, uh, the whole Bible is ultimately about Jesus. You know, the Psalms, um, are about Jesus. And so, you know, who’s blameless? Who can ascend to your holy hill, oh Lord, right? There’s, there’s only one who can do that. It’s really only Jesus.

He is really the only righteous one, right? Romans 3 is correct. There’s none righteous, no, not one, except for Jesus. Um, and so in a specific context, we might have not done anything wrong to deserve what happened to us. But overall, we are not innocent. We are not blameless. We all have issues. We all have messes. Um, and you know, Jesus tells the parable, Luke 18, two men went up to the temple to pray, right?

One of them, the, the priest, the Levite, the, the good guy, the squeaky clean guy, goes up to the temple and he’s like, I’m so happy, I’m so good. Look at all the amazing things I’ve done, God. I fast, I pray, I give, I help, you know. This one guy. The other guy, um, the tax collector stands at a distance and he’s, he can’t even look up to heaven and he says, have mercy on me, oh God, a sinner.

And Jesus says it’s the tax collector who goes home justified, not, uh, the priest and the Levite. And so the question is, which posture should we have before God? Should we have the I’m righteous posture? Um, so I’m, I, you owe me something? Or should we have the, just have mercy on me, Lord. I stand only on your steadfast love. Um, I stand on nothing of my own.

It’s the tax collector that goes home justified. It’s the sinner who admits it that goes home justified. Uh, and, and, and so should we. So thanks for the question. We’ll see you next time.