What will make you righteous?
Will the Bible make you righteous? No it will not. It's not a bad place to start, but the Bible will not make you righteous, even if you have the right translation.
Will deep study make you righteous? No it will not. If the Bible can't make you righteous, then studying it deeper will not either. Knowing the original Hebrew or Aramaic or Greek won't help. Memorizing scripture will not make you righteous.
Will ritual make you righteous? No it will not. Baptism will not make you righteous, nor will circumcision. Observing Passover will not make you righteous, nor will observing any of a litany of Jewish traditions and holidays. Observing communion, reciting the Doxology or avoiding bacon will not make you righteous.
Will prayer make you righteous? No, I'm afraid it will not. Your quiet time won't help. Neither will your devotional. Praying the scriptures won't get you there either. Simply talking to God, or talking at God, will not make you righteous.
Will knowledge make you righteous? No.
How about fasting, will that do it? No.
What about a killer ministry, surely that will? No.
But what if...what if...what if...
No. None of that. Nothing that you can take credit for will make you righteous.
So what will make you righteous?
Jesus. Jesus will make you righteous. In him you become his righteousness; you become the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. There is no other path to righteousness, no other way to be right in the sight of God. It is not enough to do right, you have to be right. That is what righteousness is.
But do you have true faith, if you don't do those other things?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, do you? What do you mean by "true faith"? Are you referring to the fact that "faith without works is dead"? I would point out that the question (or statement) is "what makes you righteous", not "what makes you have faith". Righteousness comes with faith in Jesus, not works. I don't think James was referring to faith in Jesus when he said "faith without works is dead," because faith in Jesus is more about declaring that Jesus is Lord than in some difficult concept of faith (like faith for healing, or faith for a miracle).
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