Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good day, dear ones.

I was outside about 5:30am this morning prepared to take on any raccoons I would encounter. Never saw a thing. I’ll try to do the same tomorrow morning and see what happens.

I need to get active with punching out some cut vinyl signage to stick on a big brush mowing machine for a customer today.

After beginning the approach I took below, I came to realize that I could probably write a hundred pages on the subject with related tangents—and still not cover it all. It’s hard to be brief in a case like this.

Blessings on whatever you have to do today.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Assuming that “the Pharisees and the teachers of the law” were regarded as the righteous elite of that culture, what does that tell us? The whole idea is impacting me with fresh insights and dots to connect. Consider this approach: Scroll through the “Rolodex” of all the people you know or know about. Select those to whom you would ascribe the highest scores of righteousness. Take a good look at them. Wow! They are indeed an impressive lot! But now spread a banner across the entire picture with this message: IF YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS DOES NOT SURPASS THEIR’S YOU’RE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT INSIDE THE DOOR OF GOD’S HEAVEN.

I believe the reason this kind of statement could strike us as being so shocking, discouraging, and offensive is that we tend to continue carrying at least a measure of a popular misconception as it relates to salvation and our eligibility for heaven. We tend to think in terms of achievable ratings, grade levels, degrees, and credit scores—assuming that if we can earn a certain score or righteous rating then we’re in—if not we’re out. If the top score is 10, then people like Mother Theresa or Billy Graham may be at about 9.997. And if the minimum score allowed is 5, then we can reason that we’re still OK with our 5.389.

While this kind of reasoning is rampant in the unbelieving world, it can also permeate and contaminate the ranks of believers. But here’s the clear Biblical deal—NONE OF US ARE GOING TO MAKE IT ON THE BASIS OF RIGHTEOUS ACTS—GOOD THINGS WE DO—IT STILL BOILS DOWN TO HEART LEVEL TRANSFORMATION—A HEART AFTER GOD—TO WHICH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST IS IMPUTED BY MEANS OF BELIEF, CONFESSION, AND REPENTANCE. SO ALL SCORES BELOW THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST ARE BARRED. God has a very exclusive heaven. Jesus did not say, “…seek first his kingdom and YOUR righteousness,” but “…seek first his kingdom and HIS righteousness (on His terms, which is Jesus Christ), and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33) After all, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:23). “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, (or levels of accumulated human righteousness) so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Through the lens of Biblical revelation, this makes a lot of sense. For if it were within man’s reach to achieve a sufficiently high R-score so as to be admitted into God’s heaven, then it could be done independent of the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST—which God clearly refuses to allow. That becomes another way of telling God that it was highly unnecessary for Him to send “His only begotten Son” (John 3:16-21) to be our One and Only Savior from sin and Hope of eternal life. It’s another way of calling God a liar (1 John 1:5-10).