At our last Bible study we briefly touched on whether it
is okay to talk about ourselves as 'righteous'. (I have no idea how we got
there. We were looking at 1 Corinthians 9!) This kind of language is something that happens frequently enough in
the Psalms. A good example from the NT would be how Luke describes Zechariah
and Elizabeth: 'And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in
all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.' Can we say that we are,
likewise, righteous before God? I think that we can. The key here, I think, is
the companion idea of being blameless. These two words show up together often
enough in OT. One example: 'These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a
righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.' The Hebrew
word behind the English 'blameless' is a word that is about completeness. A
Hebrew word from the same word group is often translated 'integrity'. And that,
I think, makes this work. Zechariah and
Elizabeth were not perfect. But they were believers who lived with integrity.
That is, they were not hypocrites. They worked at obeying God. They still
sinned, but when they did they admitted that and repented of it. No
hypocrisy! And thus Luke could
accurately write that they walked blamelessly (with integrity) which defined
them as being righteous.
The significance of this becomes clear when you answer
this question. Are you a sinner who will nonetheless be saved? Or are you among
the righteous who walk blamelessly even though you still sin? If you think
through the NT letters, the emphasis is clearly on describing Christians using
positive words like 'righteous'. (Think: 'saints', 'chosen', etc. How often
does Paul start a letter with, 'Dear sinners at ...?) Being able to view
yourself as among the righteous instead of as a sinner makes a difference in
how you face life. It encourages optimism.