The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

A righteous person sounds like a goody two shoes. The person who always wants to do the right thing even when it is the more difficult and unpleasant thing to do, the thing no one else wants to do. They are the one who spoils everyone’s fun. Righteousness sounds like a lot of work and sounds uncomfortable and boring. What are we to make of this old fashioned word?

D. I. My

I started dabbling in woodworking after we bought our first home and I realized that I couldn’t afford to pay people to do certain things for me. I discovered an unexpected pleasure as I set out to D.I.My (do-it-myself). I won't talk about all the weird mistakes I made but one of the first things I learned is that a straight cut is essential to any project. As a woodworker one of my favorite things is what I call a “righteous” piece of wood. That is, a piece of wood whose dimensions are exactly as the plan calls for, with two opposite edges exactly parallel to one another and adjacent edges exactly perpendicular to one another and whose edges are perpendicular to the horizontal surface and smooth. There is a sense of genuine satisfaction when my table saw and I have produced a “righteous” piece of wood and sometimes I will take a moment to enjoy the sight of this fine thing we have made. I know, it doesn’t take much to please me. I wasn’t always good at creating satisfying cuts. My first experience with a circular saw taught me that righteousness does not come by default. It must be obtained by strict discipline and deliberate effort. I had a board I intended to cut along a well marked line. I naively placed my saw blade at the marked position on the edge of the board and fired it up. I was going to guide my saw along the marked line by sight alone. Simple. Imagine my confusion when the saw proceeded to cut along a completely unprescribed line in spite of all my efforts to bring it in line. It even made a complaining sound and started to burn the wood when I tried to bring it back in line. That first cut was not right at all. It was not the saw’s or the board’s fault. It was my fault for not providing proper guidance. I know better now.

My first experience with a circular saw taught me that righteousness does not come by default. It must be obtained by strict discipline and deliberate effort.

The point of that illustration is that righteousness is not the sum of the things we do or don't do but the sum of what we are. When we are put together right, when a person is constituted in the way a person is meant to be constituted then that person is righteous. For me, a piece of wood I intend to use in my construction is righteous when it is right, satisfactory, pleasing, as intended, exactly as I want it to be. For a human then, what is the measure of righteousness? What does a person need to look like or how do they need to be constituted in order to be considered right, satisfactory, pleasing, as intended and exactly what the Maker wants him or her to be?

When a person is put together right, when a person is constituted in the was a person is meant to be constituted, then that person is righteous.

The Father of faith

Without a doubt one of the most famous people in the bible is a man named Abraham (originally Abram). He is described as the father of all who believe in God and he was called righteous by his Maker and God. In fact he is so well regarded that the God of creation often refers to himself as the God of Abraham. What did Abraham do to earn such high praise? He believed God. That’s it. He did not do anything mighty, he did not make a great sacrifice (not at first anyway), he was not the most devout and he had his flaws. He simply trusted God implicitly and did what God said ─ he took the Creator at his word before he considered the evidence and for that he was considered righteous. Now to be sure there are other people of faith who came before Abraham but somehow his faith set him apart. In the sight of his Creator he was a man who was put together right. A man who was as a man should be. And because he was considered righteous God chose to build something beautiful and enduring with him, a whole line of people that extends to the present day; a people who are likewise righteous because they believe in God implicitly before they have considered the evidence.

Why Faith?

Why is faith, specifically faith in God, the thing that makes a person righteous? Let’s step back to my analogy for a bit. My first experience at cutting wood was a disaster because inherently the saw and the board are acted on by forces they have no control over. Left to their own devices the outcome will never be a straight cut. If a board will be “righteous” the saw and the wood must both be completely under the control of the creator (and the creator must know what he is doing). Once I understood the mechanics of how saws and wood behave together I became a better creator and my boards got more and more “righteous”. These days I make most of my cuts on a table saw. In order to make a straight cut I must first ensure that at least one of the edges of my board is straight. Then I run the board between my saw blade on one side and a fixed fence running parallel to the blade on the other, with the straight edge of the board riding against the fence. As long as the straight edge of the board runs parallel to the fence the saw blade will make a cut that is parallel to the fence resulting in a board with two opposite edges that are parallel. As long as the board lies flat on the table and the saw blade is perpendicular to the table, the cut edge of the board will be perpendicular to its flat surface. Since I can set the fence any distance I desire from the saw I also control the exact location the saw blade contacts the wood and therefore the exact width of the cut board. In other words everything required to make the board “righteous” depends on me. I define the parameters that must be satisfied and I take great pains to obtain those parameters. This analogy is imperfect because in this case I require no interaction from the inanimate objects I work with. Neither my board nor my saw could choose to defy my will (it felt like they did at first) or chose to comply. They respond passively to my efforts.

What of man?

Humans of course are not passive participants in God’s grand plan. We are creatures made in the image of a loving Creator. He made us for his pleasure and delights to make us righteous. Nature is God’s table saw by which he will make us righteous and he alone can make us righteous because he defines righteousness. Amazingly we are invited to participate in the process. Only by complying completely with him, trusting him implicitly and relying entirely on him can we be made as we are intended to be. That compliance, and trust and reliance is what marks faith. Unlike the board that is made righteous against its will, we have a will and a choice. We can choose not to trust or comply or rely on the Creator. In fact that is our default position. We can squirm, fidget, resist and even run away, thus avoiding the Master's efforts or we can trust him and allow him to have his way with us. Abraham gives us a perfect example of a man who chose to trust his Maker. The result was that before he had done anything else his Maker called him righteous. Because as long as the board is willing and compliant, no matter how crooked it is at the start it will become righteous by the will of the Creator. On the other hand if the board is unwilling to let the Creator have his way then it can never become righteous. Since it knows neither the kind of piece it is meant to be nor how it fits into the larger creation, how can it know what is required of it in order to be righteous?

The righteous person

I wonder what it would have been like to sit with Abraham over coffee and listen to him talk about his walk with God. I bet it would not be boring at all. A person who has allowed himself or herself to be shaped by their creator into something that pleases him, would not be defined by what they do or don’t do, but what they are first of all. They would be the most exciting person to be around. They would be strong, secure, confident, fearless, uncompromising, gifted, gentle, generous, kind and compassionate. They would be going places and doing things that make you want to follow them or go do something great yourself. They would leave you feeling like you also can be so much more than you are now. Most of all I think a righteous person would remind you of their Creator and make you want to know him like they do. Now that’s a person I want to meet.