I love Luke and Acts, both written by Luke. He has such an incredible use of language that really draws me in to the story. The opening really drives home the eyewitness quality of the Gospels, as Luke personally investigated and interviewed eyewitnesses and participants to all these incredible events.
Something I've been thinking a lot about over the last couple years is the apparent Grace / Holiness dichotomy or tension in the Christian life. On one hand, Jesus encourages his disciples to "be perfect" (Matthew 5:48). On the other hand, we read that we obtain righteousness by faith (Romans 9:30)... that it is the righteousness of Jesus, rather than our own, that we rely on... that there is no condemnation for those who are "in" Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
So here in Luke 1 we have Zacharias and Elizabeth who were both "righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord."
Yet, Romans 3:20 tells us that "because of the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight" and Psalm 143:2 says that "no one living is righteous before you."
So how can Zacharias be "blameless," especially when in the same chapter he is indeed punished for not believing the angel's words?
I thought the word "righteous" may have slightly different meaning in the context.
ReplyDeleteIn Luke 1:6, it refers observing all the Lord’s commands....
But Roman 3:10, it refers sinless which is only applied Jesus Christ..
Luke 1 "6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly."
Romans 10 "There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God."
In addition to wun-gwi's good observation, there is another aspect which is in-fact the righteousness that comes by faith. Even in the Old Testament, the only true righteousness came by faith as is seen in Abraham and as David says in Psalm 32:1 "Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." which Paul references in Romans 4:7.
ReplyDeleteSo Zachariah and Elizabeth put their faith in God and were pursuing him as evidenced in the way they sought and served God. That doesn't mean that they were sinless in a perfect way, but that God covered and forgave their sin. Of course, this forgiveness looked forward to the payment that Jesus would make on the cross.
So in Grace/Holiness dichotomy there are two extremes which are wrong and are to be avoided: 1) God's grace covers all my sins so I don't need to pursue holiness (see Romans 6:1-2) 2) I need to be sinless for God to accept me, be viewed as righteous and be saved (see Romans 4:1-8).
The truth lies in between the extremes and recognizes that true righteousness is only God's and that each one of us is sinful and cannot save ourselves (Romans 3:10-11). The great news is that our sins can be forgiven and we can be declared righteous by putting our trust in Jesus Christ and following him (Romans 4:7). This requires that we give our whole life to him and follow him. We cannot even do this by our own strength or ability, but if we seek God and trust in him, he begins the process of sanctification, which does in fact produce obedience (Romans 1:5), holiness and observable changes (James 2:17). That process will involve sufferings that we go through and choices that we have to make to follow God and allow his work in our lives (Romans 5:3). As 1 Peter 1:8 describes, this process should always be ongoing and increasing. The great news is that Jesus promises to keep working on us and changing us (Phil 1:6) unless we persistently deny and turn away from him (2 Tim 2:12).
I had the same question. Thank you all for sharing the question and answers!
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