unrighteousness

The Self-Delusion of Self-Righteousness.

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 He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. – Romans 2:6-11 ESV

In chapter two of Romans, Paul is addressing the Jewish community. In the first chapter he talked about the non-Jew or pagan, who stands before God as without excuse and guilty. They have had God’s “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature” (Romans 1:20 ESV) clearly revealed to them and yet, they had refused to acknowledge Him as God. Instead, they had ended up worshiping the creation rather than the Creator, leading to God turning them over to their own foolish hearts, dishonorable passions, and debased minds. But as far as Paul was concerned, the Jews were no less culpable or free from guilt. In fact, they were so busy pointing their condemning fingers at he pagans, that they failed to see that they were guilty of the same sins they claimed not to commit. As descendants of Abraham and children of God, they considered themselves exempt from judgment. They somehow thought themselves to be immune from God’s wrath. But Paul warned them that, they too, were without excuse. They stood just as much condemned and guilty as the Gentiles who were outside the family of God. The self-righteous efforts of the Jews aimed at a holy God, were going to be no more helpful in the long run than the self-righteous actions of the Gentiles directed at their false gods. Paul accused the Jews of having hard and unrepentant hearts. They refused to admit their guilt and accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. So Paul warned them that “you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5 ESV). Not only that, the day was coming when God was going to render to each of them according to his works.

Paul is using the Old Testament Scriptures to indict them. He quotes from two different passages. The first is from Psalm 62:11-12: “and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.” The second is from Proverbs 24:12: “Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?” The Hebrew Scriptures provided a strong understanding of the coming judgment of God. It would be based according to each man’s works. The expectation was righteousness – God’s brand of righteousness, not man’s. The requirement was perfection and nothing less. God had told the Israelites repeatedly, “For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. ” (Leviticus 11:44 ESV). Jesus had told the Jews of His day, “unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 5:20 NLT). James put it in even more practical, if not demanding terms: “For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws” (James 2:10 NLT).

And Paul seems to give only two options for life, and both end in judgment. One is to live satisfying the self and disobeying the truth regarding God and His gospel offer. Those individuals will end up obeying unrighteousness and earning God’s full wrath and fury on the day of judgment. The other option is to life self-righteously, attempting to obey God’s law and earn a right standing with Him through your own efforts. And if you happen to pull it off, your reward on judgment day will be glory, honor, peace and immortality, while everyone else gets tribulation and distress. But is Paul saying we can earn our salvation by doing good deeds? Certainly not. He is showing that those who are sinners will be judged and condemned, but so will those who consider themselves to be righteous because of their own efforts. In the very next chapter Paul will make it clear that “all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin” (Romans 3:9 NLT), and that “No one is righteous – not even one” (Romans 3:10 NLT). A little further on in that same chapter, Paul will introduce the sobering news, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NLT).

So self-righteousness is no better than sinfulness. Attempting to do good things for God puts you in no better position than those who do bad things against God. God shows no partiality. Nobody gets to earn their way into His good graces. There is one way and one way only for men to be made right with God, and that is through the death of Jesus Christ. Paul goes on in chapter three to say, “all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24 NLT). That includes the Jew and the Gentile, the pagan and the pious, the selfish and the self-righteous. “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” (Ephesians 2:8-9  NLT).

We can’t earn our salvation. None of us deserve God’s grace and mercy. The Jews were no better off than the Gentiles. They were sinners, condemned and unclean. Paul reminds us that at the foot of the cross, we’ll all equals when it comes to our guiltiness and our need for forgiveness. Which is why he wrote, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV). The greatest danger men face is to fall under the delusion of man-made righteousness. We will never be able to achieve our way into God’s presence or earn out way into His good graces. Which is why He sent His Son to live among us, model holiness right in front us, and die on behalf of us. “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT). 

No God. No righteousness.

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And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. – Romans 1:28-32 ESV

This is the third time Paul uses the phrase, “God gave them up.” By this time, we should be able to see the seriousness of Paul’s point. If God releases men to live as they wish to live, separated from Him by rejecting His very existence or re-imagining their own version of Him, the outcome is less-than-ideal. Without God, the one true God, man is left to his own devices, and their foolish hearts become increasingly darkened. Despite their self-proclaimed wisdom, they become fools, incapable of discerning right from wrong, righteousness from unrighteousness. The prophet Isaiah wrote about these kinds of people in his day.

What sorrow for those who drag their sins behind them with ropes made of lies, who drag wickedness behind them like a cart! (Isaiah 5:18 NLT).

What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever. (Isaiah 5:20-21 NLT).

When a man decides he has no need of God, he loses far more than his awareness of the Creator. The rejection or reinvention of God is a dangerous game to play. The NIV translates verse 28 this way: “since they did not think it worth while to retain the knowledge of God.” They basically said, “We don’t need God.” So God allowed them to experience life without Him. He “gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” Without God in their lives, they lose the capacity to think wisely. As Isaiah said, they end up calling evil good and good evil. Their minds become twisted and their logic becomes skewed. And Paul states that they become “filled” with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, and malice. They become, literally, “filled to the brim.” Unrighteousness describes anything that is contrary to what God has deemed right or just. Evil has to do with man living out his godless purposes and desires in depraved ways. Covetousness is simply greed or the insatiable need for more. It is the opposite of contentment. Malice is a shameless desire to do harm to others. These characteristics fill those who reject God, and they end up manifesting themselves in a variety of ways. Paul provides us with a fairly sobering list: “envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossiping, slander, hate for God, insolence, haughtiness or pride, boasting, invention of evil, disobedience to parents, foolishness, faithlessness, heartlessness, and ruthlessness.”

And here’s the worst part. Not only do they do these things. They give their full consent and approval to anyone else who does them too. Even though they know “that those who practice such things deserve to die,” they do them anyway. They become driven by unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, and malice. It ends up filling them and overflowing out of them. It was Chrystostom who said, “the one who praises the sin of others if far worse than the one who sins himself” (Chrystostom, Homilies on Romans). Paul warned Timothy that a day was coming when people would not want to hear the truth anymore. They would look for teachers who would approve or their actions and tell them that their lifestyles were perfectly acceptable. “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4 ESV). The Greek word Paul used for myths is mythos and it refers to something that is invented, a fiction or falsehood. Without God, men will invent their own form of righteousness. They will determine their own ethical and moral standards. And then they will seek out those who will tell them their unrighteous actions are acceptable. That is the world in which we live today. Sadly, there are pastors all across the country who are more than willing to tickle the ears of their congregations, telling them what they want to hear, approving of their lifestyle choices and, as a result, denying the truth of God.

We live in a day when the cry for tolerance has drowned out God’s call for righteousness. We have become accepting and accommodating of all kinds of attitudes and actions that God has deemed unrighteous and unacceptable. It is not loving to allow someone to live according to a lie. It is not merciful to hide the truth from someone who is deceived. It was Jesus who said, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:21-32 NLT). The gospel of God is about the righteousness of God made available to men through the gift of His Son. Left to his own devices, man will never achieve or accomplish the degree of righteousness that God demands. Even those who claim to believe in God, the religious, will fail in their efforts to live up to God’s righteous standards. That is why Paul says that all men are without excuse. All stand before God as guilty. But the good news is that Jesus came to die for sinners. He came to pay the price for our guilt and to free us from condemnation. But for a man to be free, he must accept the truth of his own sin and the gift of God’s Son. He must understand the reality of his guilt and the just outcome of his sin: death. Then he must accept the free gift of God’s grace and believe that Jesus Christ has paid his debt and replaced his unrighteousness with righteousness. That is the good news. That is the gospel of God.

Left To Our Own Devices.

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For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. – Romans 1:26-27 ESV

What happens when man abandon the truth of God for “the lie?” The lie is, in essence, that God does not exist at all or that He exists according to man’s invention. And if the one true God does not exist at all or exist as He truly is, then man is left to create his own order of things and his own laws for life. Three times in this section of Romans 1, Paul uses the phrase, “God gave them up.” Paul is attempting to demonstrate what life looks like when God releases men to pursue and believe “the lie.” Thinking themselves to be wise, their foolish hearts become darkened, and they lose any ability to make decisions based on the wisdom and righteousness of God. In this condition, they find themselves believing and practicing practically anything. “Those who turned against God turned everything on its head. For those who forsook the author of nature could not keep to the order of nature” (Pelagius, Commentary on Romans). Paul refers to women who “exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature” and he mentions men who “gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another” (Romans 1:26-27 ESV). There are those today who would like to write this off as simply the opinion of Paul. There are others who attempt to explain away what Paul says by insinuating that he is only speaking against “improper” homosexual acts, not the act itself. Still others want to believe that Paul is only referring to homosexual acts that were taking place in the context of pagan worship. But these are not the words of Paul. They are the words of God. They are part of the powerful explanation Paul has provided in this letter regarding the gospel of God. Men are without excuse. They have abandoned the truth about God and His will for mankind. They have ignored God’s clear revelation of His invisible attributes and divine nature in His creation. Rather than worship God, they have ended up worshiping anything and everything but God. And Paul makes it painfully clear that what sinful man always ends up doing is distorting the truth of God. They exchange the natural for the unnatural, what is right for what is wrong, the holy for the unholy, the will of God for the will of self. They become consumed with passions – all kinds of passions, both good and bad. But the time comes when they can no longer tell the difference. The lines become blurred. Their consciences become seared. They lose the ability to discern right from wrong, and even become rabid defenders of their actions and attitudes.

It doesn’t take a biblical scholar to read the words of God recorded in Genesis 1 and to reach a conclusion. “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it’” (Genesis 1:27-28 NLT). They were to bear fruit, to multiply their kind. That is why God created them as a male and female. It was together, as man and woman, that they were to fulfill the command of God. Adam could not do it alone. Eve was incapable of multiplying by herself. God built into nature and into their physiology, the ability to live within His will. But man, in his sin, has determined a “better way,” a preferred way. Natural passions end up being replaced by unnatural, ungodly passions. Paul calls them “dishonorable passions.” The Greek word he uses is atimia and it is very graphic in nature. It was “used of the unseemliness and offensiveness of a dead body” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). It was also used to refer to the dishonorable use of a vessel or container. Bodies are meant to have life. A dead body is unnatural and offensive to our senses. It is lifeless and no longer operating as it was intended to. The same thing is true of those who are consumed with passion for those of the same sex. They are no longer operating as God intended them to. Their acts are unnatural and against the ordained will of God.

But in our day and age, any attempt to make this claim is met with disdain, hatred, cries of bigotry and intolerance, and a violent defense of individual rights and freedoms. But, according to Paul, we should not be surprised. Their foolish hearts are darkened. The claim to be wise, boasting in their enlightened understanding and progressive comprehension of all things moral and ethical. But they are fools. They have “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man” (Romans 1:23 ESV). Of course, Paul was referring to idol worship here, but the real issue is that of man-worship. When the best expression we can come up with for God’s revealed power and divine nature is the image of man, we are in trouble. When we make a god out of man, we end up worshiping ourselves. And we sacrifice truth at the altar of our own corrupt passions and desires. Self-satisfaction and self-gratification consume us. God releases us to pursue our increasingly perverse passions.

We must not lose sight of the fact that Paul is attempting to explain and expound upon the gospel of God. The good news of Jesus Christ must be displayed against the backdrop of man’s darkened state of sin. Paul is going to show that man is in trouble. Apart from God, things will always for from bad to worse. In Paul’s estimation, it doesn’t matter if you’re pagan or pious, immoral or a moral icon of virtue. Without God’s glorious gospel, all men will ultimately receive “the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:27 ESV). Man without God is hopeless. Man, left to his own devices, will always gravitate toward ungodliness and unrighteousness. But the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed” (Romans 1:16-17 ESV).

The Wrath of God.

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For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. – Romans 1:18-20 ESV

In verse 17, Paul states that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God from faith for faith. That word, “reveals” in the Greek is apokalyptō and it means to make known what was once hidden. So Paul is saying that the way to achieve righteousness, which was at one time hidden or unknown to men, is through faith. Faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. That is why he says, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17 ESV). This new or formerly hidden means to getting right with God was revealed through the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In other words, through the gospel. Now, in verse 18, Paul unveils another once-hidden mystery. The gospel also revealed the wrath of God. He states, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” In the gospel, the good news regarding salvation through Jesus Christ, we also see the wrath of God poured out. Jesus’ excruciating death on the cross is both a picture of God’s love and wrath – at the same time. Isaiah, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, wrote of the coming Messiah:

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Peter referred to this passage when he wrote, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24 ESV). The full extend of God’s hatred of sin was revealed on the cross. The innocent died for the guilty. The sinless One had to pay the price for the sinful. God died for the godless. In order for men to be made right with God, He had to pay the ultimate price and sacrifice His own Son. Jesus came to die. His death was the only means by which the wrath of God could be satisfied, the sins of man could be forgiven and righteousness could be achieved. Later on in this same letter, Paul asks a somewhat rhetorical question: “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?” (Romans 9:22-24 ESV). God would have been completely just and right if He had chosen to destroy all mankind, because all men are guilty of having rebelled against Him. They were all vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. But instead, God chose to pour out His wrath on His own Son, in order that men might be saved from destruction. Some have described that idea as divine child abuse. They struggle with the idea that God would kill His own Son, even though it was for a good cause – to redeem millions upon millions of people. But God knew what man couldn’t know – that a restored relationship with Him was impossible without His help. Man could never live up to God’s righteous standard. Man was totally incapable of producing the kind of righteousness God required. That’s why Jesus told His followers, “unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:20 NLT). That statement from the lips of Jesus did not come across as good news to His audience. It sounded like mission: impossible. But that was His point. Their righteousness was going to have to come from a source other than themselves. It was going to have to be the righteousness of God that had been revealed from heaven in the form of Jesus Christ.

But while the gospel is good news, you can’t have good news without bad news. And the bad news is that God hates sin and has to punish it. He cannot tolerate or overlook sin. Mankind is inherently ungodly and unrighteous, and in their state of unrighteousness, they suppress or hold back the truth. This doesn’t mean they in some way restrain or the truth of God, but their actions deny the reality of the holiness of God and His expectation that His creation reflect that holiness. Paul goes on to say that they are without excuse. God has revealed Himself to them through His creation – “his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world” (Romans 1:20 ESV). The very existence of idols throughout the history of mankind lends credence to Paul’s statement. The human race has always recognized the existence of a greater power outside of our everyday experience. Men reveal the reality of God in their built-in need to worship someone or something. Martin Luther writes, “This demonstrates that there was in their hearts a knowledge of a divine sovereign being. How else could they have ascribed to a stone, or to the deity represented by stone, divine attributes, had they not been convinced that such qualities really belong to God!” (Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans).

So man is without excuse. But man is not without hope. While the full extent of God’s wrath was revealed on the cross and poured out on His Son, His love was also made known. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV). God’s wrath was satisfied by Jesus. But men must accept God’s gift of His Son. They must rely on the payment made by Jesus to provide for them the righteousness they could never earn on their own. But John goes on to tell us the sad, but true reality. “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19 ESV). Men can choose to accept the love of God or remain under the wrath of God. He has provided a way of escape. But all men must choose to accept or reject it.

Yet I Will Rejoice.

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Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. – Habakkuk 3:17-19 ESV

What kinds of conditions do you put on your worship of God? What does He have to do to get you to love and honor Him? Maybe you expect your life to be easy-going and care-free. Perhaps you demand that things always go your way or that your life be marked by happiness and contentment. You silently hope for no pain, sorrow or disappointment. And if any of those things show up in your life, you tend to wonder what God is doing or why He has it out for you. But in the prayer of Habakkuk, found in chapter three of the book that bears his name, we see a slightly different perspective – one we could all stand to incorporate into our lives as believers.

Habakkuk was a prophet. Like all prophets, he had been given an assignment by God to tell the people of Israel about the coming destruction from God because of their sins. He was to call them to repentance. But at the very outset of the book of Habakkuk, we read his words of complaint aimed at God. “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted” (Habakkuk 1:2-4 ESV). It sounds like Habakkuk was less than satisfied with how God was handling the situation in Israel. From his perspective, God was oblivious or indifferent to what was going on all around Habakkuk. The nation of Judah, where Habakkuk lived, was out of control. Sin was rampant. Evil was everywhere. And it appeared as if God didn’t really care. The righteous were suffering and injustice was more commonplace than justice. Yet God seemed strangely silent. But nothing could have been further from the truth. God assured Habakkuk that He was anything but complacent about what was going on in Judah. He told His perturbed prophet, “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told” (Habakkuk 1:5 ESV). Basically, God told Habakkuk that He was doing some incredible things, but Habakkuk wouldn’t believe it if he heard it. God was going to deal with the injustice and rebellion in Judah. He was going to raise up the nation of Babylon to bring judgment on His people. The nation of Judah would suffer the same fate as that of the northern kingdom of Israel: destruction and deportation.

Now that God had told Habakkuk what He was going to do, Habakkuk had second thoughts. He complained again, “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” (Habakkuk 1:13 ESV). How in the world could a just and loving God allow a perverse, pagan nation to destroy the people of God? What was up with that? God answered Habakkuk. In the very next chapter, God reveals to Habakkuk what He has planned for the Babylonians. Yes, He will use them to punish Judah, but then God will mete out justice on them. In His time. In His way. Habakkuk didn’t need to understand it all. He simply needed to trust God. And God closed out His answer to Habakkuk with these words: “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (Habakkuk 2:20 ESV). In other words, God was telling Habakkuk not to forget the fact that He was sovereign and in complete control, whether it looked that way to Habakkuk or not. Rather than complain, Habakkuk needed to wait and watch. And Habakkuk replies in humility, “I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us” (Habakkuk 3:16 ESV). He didn’t get it. He didn’t even like it. But he was learning to see it as coming from the hand of God. Which is what led him to say, “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” Even if things didn’t quite look like what Habakkuk was expecting, he would rejoice in God. Even if events took a turn for the worse, he would take joy in the God of his salvation. He would trust God. Why? Because “God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places” (Habakkuk 3:19 ESV).

In spite of all that was taking place around him, Habakkuk determined to rejoice in the Lord. He was going to find reasons to praise God whether the evidence existed or not. Because he believed his God to be trustworthy, sovereign and faithful. Too often my praise is predicated on my preconceived expectations. I rejoice only when things turn out the way I envisioned them. If God meets my conditions, He can have my worship. But Habakkuk would have me understand that God deserves my praise whether I agree with His methods or not. I don’t have the full picture. I don’t understand what He is doing behind the scenes. So I must learn to trust Him and say, “Yet I will rejoice.” Because He knows what He is doing.

In Wrath Remember Mercy.

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O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. – Habakkuk 3:2 ESV

How well do you know God? How intimately are you acquainted with His character and how does that impact the way you view life and influence your prayers? Habakkuk was a prophet of God who lived during the seventh-century B.C. and prophesied to the southern kingdom of Judah during the period of time before they went into exile. Those were difficult days. The people were rebellious. The nation had had a long succession of kings, most of whom had failed to lead well or serve God faithfully. Habakkuk’s job was to call the people to repentance. Like virtually every prophet of God, his message tended to fall on deaf ears and he experienced little to no success for his efforts. Earlier, Habakkuk had prayed another prayer, asking God to explain Himself. “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted” (Habakkuk 1:2-4 ESV). Habakkuk was struggling. He had a difficult, if not impossible job to do. He found himself surrounded by sinful, rebellious people, living in a society where wickedness was rampant. Even the governmental and legal systems were perverted and failing to do their jobs.

God’s response to Habakkuk was simple and direct. “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told” (Habakkuk 1:4 ESV). He went on to tell Habakkuk of the coming Babylonian invasion of Judah. The once great nation would fall and the people would be taken into captivity as a result of their consistent rebellion against God. And Habakkuk was not shocked by God’s news of Judah’s pending doom. He simply stated, “Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof” (Habakkuk 1:12 ESV). He trusted God, but he was confused that He would use an even more wicked, immoral and godless nation to punish the chosen people of God. Habakkuk was wrestling with what he knew about God and how it all fit into his current circumstances. He asked God, “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” (Habakkuk 1:13 ESV). Habakkuk was having an internal struggle with what he knew about God and what he saw happening all around him. He was surrounded by injustice and inequality. He helplessly watched as the wicked seemingly enjoy success at the expense of the godly. And then God had told him that the godless, pagan Babylonians would be His chosen instrument of punishment on the nation of Judah.

Judah was looking and praying for salvation. He was asking God to remedy the dismal situation in Judah. But God revealed that judgment was coming, and it would be coming from a source that would shock and surprise most people. God was going to answer Habakkuk’s prayer, but in a way that was unexpected and seemingly unjust. All of this was so confusing to the poor prophet. He trusted God, but he also couldn’t help but look around and see the sinful mess in which the people of Judah found themselves. Everything was topsy-turvy and upside down. Wickedness was winning out over righteousness within the walls of Jerusalem and now God was going to use a pagan nation to destroy those very same walls and the nation that lived within them. And Habakkuk knew that God was justified in His actions. The people were going to get exactly what they deserved. Which led Habakkuk to pray, “I have heard the report of you, and your work, O Lord, do I fear.” Habakkuk knew what had happened to the northern kingdom of Israel. God had used the nation of Assyria to punish them, destroying their capital and taking their people into captivity. Habakkuk understood the nature of God’s sovereignty, justice and power, and it caused him to fear God. It was not a cowering, run-for-your-life kind of fear, but a sobering reverence and awe that resulted in a healthy respect for who God was.

Habakkuk appealed to God, asking that “In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known.” He wanted God to reveal His divine plan of judgment to the people. He wanted God to make it known that His wrath was coming, so that the people might yet return to Him and be revived. And God was using Habakkuk as His chosen instrument to accomplish just that end. But when all was said and done, Habakkuk knew that, whatever happened, they were dependent upon God’s mercy. God had every right to be angry. He had been faithful. He had provided blessing upon blessing to His people, but they had chosen to repeatedly and persistently rebel against Him. Now judgment was imminent. So Habakkuk pleaded that God would “in wrath remember mercy.” He knew His God to be loving, faithful, merciful and kind. While He was obligated to punish sin, He was also consistent in extending mercy. Even His punishment would be an expression of His love for the people of Judah. He would use it to bring them to an end of themselves and to create in them an awareness of their need for Him. “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:6 ESV). Habakkuk was placing his hope, faith and trust in what he knew about God. He was going to trust Him to do the right thing, regardless of whether it made logical sense or not. He was learning to judge his circumstances through the lens of God’s character, rather than the other way around. God’s ways are not our ways. But His ways are always just, righteous and loving.

Cleansed by God.

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Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. – Psalm 51:7-9 ESV

Psalm 51

David came to God humbly confessing his sin. He took full responsibility for what he had done and acknowledged that his sin had been against God. But David was not done. He came to God because he desperately needed something from God. Yes, he desired God’s forgiveness, but he greatly needed and wanted God to cleanse him from his sin, guilt, shame and brokenness. David’s sin had taken its toll on him. He was burdened by what he had done. He knew he had displeased God and as long as his sin remained unconfessed and hidden, he was miserable. In another one of his psalms, David gives a description of just what his mindset would have been. “When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat” (Psalm 32:3-4 NLT). The purpose for David’s confession was far more than a guilt-free conscience. He knew that confession alone would not remove his sin. He needed God’s cleansing. The apostle John gave us an important reminder on the power of confession in the life of a believer. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10 ESV). Refusal to believe that we are even capable of sin may make us feel better, but it doesn’t fool God. To deny the sin for which God convicts us is to call Him a liar. But if we will own up to our sin and humbly confess it to God, He will not only forgive us but cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God doesn’t just remove the guilt, He takes away the cause of the guilt.

David asked God to purge him with hyssop. This was a reference to the practice of the priest sprinkling animal blood on the altar with a hyssop branch. The animal was killed as a substitute for the sinner and its blood was sprinkled on the altar as a sacrifice or payment for the sins of the individual. The writer of Hebrews, speaking of the Old Testament sacrificial system, said, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22 ESV). While David would have surely taken advantage of the opportunity to offer sacrifice for his sins, he was asking God Himself to make him clean. He wanted God to do for him what no human being could do: remove the stain of his sin completely. He asked God to restore his joy and gladness. He begged God to blot out all his iniquities. David’s broken relationship with God, caused by his own sin, was as painful and debilitating as an actual broken bone. He needed the healing of the Great Physician. Sin brings sorrow, guilt and shame. It leaves us alienated from God. And while we are responsible to come to Him in confession, we are completely dependent on Him for forgiveness and cleansing.

David was appealing to the mercy and love of God. He knew God well. He understood God’s holiness, but he also depended on God’s unfailing love and mercy. In another one of his psalms, David revealed his personal view of God’s relationship with him. “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:10-14 ESV). That was what David was counting on. He knew that God understood his faults, failings and weaknesses. He understood and was counting on the fact that God was compassionate and kind. David was relying on God’s unfailing love. He knew that if God removed the guilt of his sin, it would be complete and permanent, as far as the east if from the west. The apostle John would have us remember that “Jesus came to take away our sins” (1 John 3:5 ESV) and “the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8 ESV). Jesus died in order to pay the debt owed for our sins. He came to remove the penalty of death that hung over our heads due to our sin natures inherited from Adam, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV). But John reminds us that “the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7 ESV). God has provided a means by which we can receive forgiveness and cleansing from ALL our sin – past, present and future. We will still sin, because we still have our sin natures. But the debt has been paid. The blood has been shed. All we must do is confess our sins and God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The result is the removal of guilt and shame, restoration of fellowship with God, healing from our pain and sorrow, and renewed joy and gladness. There is an old Scottish proverb that says, “confession in good for the soul.” David would agree. But it is not the act of confession that brings the benefit. It is the cleansing power of the blood of Christ that provides the gracious and complete forgiveness of God.

God Knows. Don’t Panic.

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Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. – 1 John 3:18-20 NLT

1 John 3:11-24

All John’s talk about sinning and unrighteousness, being of the evil one, and abiding in death could easily leave someone wondering if they were ever saved at all. After all, John makes it quite clear that Jesus “appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5 ESV). So the natural conclusion one might make is that if I have sin, I might not be saved. John even seems to confirm this conclusion when he says, “no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him” (1 John 3:6 ESV). This entire section of 1 John has caused many to question their salvation or at least begin to wonder if they could lose their salvation. Could the presence of sin in the life of a believer indicate a “falling away” or a loss of their “savedness?” John seemed to know that those to whom he was writing were going to struggle with the same issues. After all, there had just been an exodus from the body of believers on the part of some of their so-called brothers in Christ. These people had left the church over some major disagreements regarding the deity of Christ, the nature of sin and the truth regarding the gospel. So John was encouraging those who remained behind to remain or abide in Christ. He was telling them to keep believing in the message taught to them by the apostles and confirmed in them by the presence of the Holy Spirit. His letter was designed to build confidence in his audience, not instill doubt. Which is why he wrote, “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink back from him in shame at his coming” (1 John 2:28 ESV). For John, abiding in Christ was the key to confidence. But it would be easy for us to draw the conclusion that our confidence lies in our ability to NOT sin. In other words, we somehow have to figure out a way to do MORE righteousness and LESS unrighteousness. We have to get rid of all of the sin in our life or we won’t measure up when the Lord returns. But this is not John’s message. He is not out to cause doubt, but to encourage confidence. Which is why he keeps driving his readers back to Christ. Abide in Christ. Remain in Him. Place your trust in what He has done, not what you are trying to do.

But John did expect life change. He did believe that there would be fruit in the lives of those who had placed their faith in Christ for salvation and remained fully trusting in Him for their sanctification. In fact, their love for one another was evidence of that life change. Only Christ could have brought that about. John’s argument seemed to be that those who had recently left the church were not of Christ because they did not love their brothers and sisters in Christ. They had walked away. They had left. And the inference seems to be that their departure was marked by hate. Which is why John warned, …We should not be like Cain” (1 John 3:12 ESV). Those who had left were more like Cain than Abel. They were marked by a love for the world, not the love of God. Their lives were loveless and marked by an abiding in death. In other words, they lived as if they had never passed from death into life. But John told those who remained to keep on loving one another, and to make it practical by caring for the everyday needs of those in their fellowship.

Then John deals with a very real issue for us as believers. Those times when we feel like we are not measuring up. When we aren’t loving enough, doing enough, sinning less enough. In verse 19 John writes, “by this we know” and when he does, he is referring to when we love in deed and in truth. In other words, when we our love shows up in practical acts that are in keeping with Jesus’ command to love as He loved, selflessly and sacrificially, “we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him” (1 John 3:19 ESV). I love the way the New Living Translation puts it. “Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.” The very fact that we love at all is proof that God is at work in us. His Spirit resides within us. So we can come before Him with confidence. The writer of Hebrews reminds us, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16 ESV). Even when our hearts condemn us and accuse us of not measuring up, of not loving enough, of not being good enough, John says, “God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20 ESV). This isn’t a threat, but a word of encouragement. God knows. Don’t panic. We can come before Him confidently. Not because of what we have or have not done. But because of what Christ has done on our behalf. Remember, Jesus is our advocate, our mediator. He is our High Priest, who intercedes on our behalf before the Father. Enter His presence with boldness. He knows and He cares.

Romans 1:18-32

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God Substitutes.

Romans 1:18-32

They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. – Romans 1:25 NLT

While Paul relished the the Good News that man could be made right with God through a relationship with Jesus Christ, he was also painfully aware of the bad news surrounding the state of mankind. The next section of his letter paints a very bleak picture of just how bad things had become in the world. God was angry with men, and justifiably so. They had long ago abandoned any idea of acknowledging His presence or obeying His commands. Ever since Adam and Eve had sinned in the Garden of Eden, rejecting God’s authority over their lives, man’s moral descent had been a rapid one. While the very nature and attributes of God could be seen all around them, most explicitly through His creation, they refused to acknowledge Him as God. Instead, relying on their limited intellects and sin-infected reasoning capacities, they began to develop their own concept of God. Rather than worship the One who created all that they could see, they began to worship those things He had created. They missed the point. They lost their focus. They became distracted by the temporal, rather than see the eternal. Over time, their minds became darkened and confused. Their sinful pride and arrogance led them to believe they were wise, while in reality, they were nothing but misguided fools.

“So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired” (Romans 1:24 NLT). He handed them over. He took His hand off the wheel, so to speak, and allowed them to do what they wanted to do. This is one of the saddest statements in Scripture. It is also one of the scariest. Man, left to his own, evil devices, is a disaster waiting to happen. Without God’s restraining hand in place, man will self-destruct, which is exactly what happened. Devoid of God’s moral boundaries in place, mankind quickly steered off course. Their behavior degraded quickly, as they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. They worshiped the creation rather than the Creator. They saw more value in themselves than in the One who had made them. With no moral compass to guide them, their sins became increasingly more bold and base, while their behavior became increasingly more man-centered rather than God-centered. “Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done” (Romans 1:28 NLT).

Things had gotten bad. “Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip” (Romans 1:29 NLT). The state of affairs could not have been any worse. But this bleak and foreboding picture is exactly what Paul wants his readers to wrestle with. He wants them to understand just how bad things had become and just how dire the circumstances were when God determined to step back in and fix the problem. When God had turned mankind over to seek their own selfish, sinful desires, He had not done so permanently. He had not abandoned them forever. He had a plan in place and was only waiting for just the right moment to introduce His solution to man’s problem. While God had every right to mete out punishment on mankind for their sin and open rebellion against Him, He chose to show mercy and grace. Mankind stood as guilty and without excuse for their rejection of God, and He would have been just and right to punish them for their actions. The world had become God-less and unrighteous. Yet God would solve their unrighteousness by introducing a righteousness of His own. He would reinsert Himself into the scenario once again – this time in the form of the Son of God in human flesh. Righteousness would invade unrighteousness. The true God would reveal Himself in the midst of rampant godlessness. That is the Good News that Paul will talk about throughout the rest of this letter. “This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, ‘It is through faith that a righteous person has life'” (Romans 1:17 NLT). In the midst of man’s hopelessness, helplessness, sinfulness, and godlessness, God intervened and provided a gracious, merciful solution that should leave everyone of us blown away and eternally grateful.

Father, even as bad as things had become, You never truly abandoned us. You allowed us to follow our own sinful inclination and proved to us just how desperately we need You. Without You, we are doomed to destruction. We will self-destruct. We will destroy ourselves and all that You have made. And yet, You had a solution and You introduced that solution at the peak of our sinfulness – in spite of our sinfulness. While we were yet sinners, You sent Your Son to die for us. That is amazing. It is mind-boggling. And it is truly Good News! Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org