Righteousness, Obedience, Grace, and Faith

Today, we’re moving on from our 10-month-long discussion of faith. It has been an adventure from which I for one have learned a lot about what faith is, what faith isn’t, how faith works, what faith does. We’ve spent the last few weeks talking about the ultimate future and the survival of faith.

This is the 21st year of our journey through the book of Matthew, studying the mission and the message of Jesus. Now we’re in chapter 23, which means that we’re studying about one chapter a year. In this chapter Jesus details the “woes” of the Pharisees. We’ve just finished the fourth woe, where Jesus reminds the Pharisees that they should pay more attention to the weightier matters of the law: Justice, mercy, and faith.

We had rather lengthy discussions on the subject of justice and mercy and then a very lengthy one on the subject of faith. The fifth and sixth woes are quite similar to one another so we’ll put them together for our discussion:

[Fifth woe] “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may also become clean.  

[Sixth woe] “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you too, outwardly appear righteous to people, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:25-28)

Here we see a picture of self-righteousness, of a concentration on behavior, and a portrait of hypocrisy. The illustration of a cup clean on the outside and dirty on the inside requires no explanation. Similar, too, is the tomb, which is whitewashed and gleaming on the outside, but inside full of dead bones and dust.

So we have much to consider over the next few weeks: The perils and the pitfalls of self-righteousness, the blindness that we have to our own self-righteousness and to our own standing before God, the unrecognized consequences of spiritual arrogance. And then, of course, the subject of obedience and grace. Because ultimately, the question arises: If I’m saved by grace, and not of myself, and it’s a gift from God…

 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

…then what role does obedience have in my salvation? How good must I be to be saved? How bad must I be to be lost? And if I’m not saved by my works, can I be lost by my words? Is it true that only good people go to heaven?

All the great faiths have as a central theme that we must do the right thing, we must be the right people, we must do good works in order to be saved. According to a Pew study done in 2017 ahead of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, 52% of American Protestants believe that good deeds and faith are both necessary for salvation. An identical percentage (52%) hold that Christians need guidance from their church teachings and from the traditions of the church, in conjunction with the Bible, to have truth.

These data are surprising, at least to me, given that the Reformation was largely launched on the basis of a disagreement with these specific doctrines. After all, the two mantras of the Reformation were sola fide—“only faith”—which is the subject of righteousness by faith that Martin Luther championed, from the book of Romans; and sola scriptura, which is the authority found only in the Scriptures.

The notion that our behavior, our actions, our work should somehow influence our judgment is deeply held amongst all religions. But what about grace, unmerited favor, the mercy of God, and of not getting what we deserve? No concept is more confusing, and more unbelievable to non-Christians than the idea that we don’t get what we deserve. Grace, mercy, the atonement, and the death of innocence so that the guilty can live are concepts that just don’t make sense to non-Christians. Isn’t it, after all, just a license to keep on sinning? Why be obedient if it’s all washed away at the cross?

A Muslim friend told me: “We have much in common spiritually. But I just cannot accept the idea that we don’t take responsibility for our behavior, that somehow our actions, our sins, are just washed away.” I asked him if he was able to lead a perfect life. “No,” he said, “but I try to do the best that I can.” Then I asked him “How can you tell how good you’ve been? Have you been good enough to be saved?” “I’ll never know,” he replied. “That’s only up to God at the judgment.”

In the fifth and sixth woes to the Pharisees Jesus highlights the human condition: Looking good on the outside, dirty and dead on the inside. Outwardly obeying, looking good; but inwardly rotten. How good do we have to be? How good do we need to appear to be? How good do we need to try to be?

Being good is often hard. By human nature we are selfish and self-righteous. Even when doing good, it’s often because of something we might get by doing it. Even my motives for doing good might not be perfect. I’m selfishly good. I benefit from my goodness. My motives, even in my goodness, are selfish and suspect. My goodness might get me merit for heaven, but my goodness might also get me some advantage or privilege here on earth. And, we’re constantly encouraged in the Scriptures to do good and to obey, to do the right thing and to live a good life:

If you are willing and obedient, You will eat the best of the land;… (Isaiah 1:19)

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” (Matthew 7:21)

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24)

 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15)

“Now why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46)

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves. (James 1:22)

Submit therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

These passages and many, many others emphasize the importance of being good, of obeying and of living the good life.

In an economy of grace, what is the role of obedience? Do you have to obey? And what, after all, should you obey anyway? Do you have to do something to get grace? Is it harder to believe that you need to do something or that that you don’t have to do anything for it? Why do you study and read the Bible? Why do you pray? Why do you fast and why do you give alms? Why do you try to be good?

What is the role of obedience in Christian life? Is there anything to be gained from cleaning the cup on the outside while the inside is smudged? With everybody producing and proclaiming a different truth, what is it that I’m supposed to be obeying anyway? Is it possible that obedience is the way of grace? Or are obedience and grace opposites, mutually exclusive? Doesn’t anyone want to stick up for a little whitewash on their sepulcher?

Does obedience benefit me, or does it benefit God? Is obedience for our sake or for God’s sake? In Romans 1:4-5 Paul talks about grace, discipleship, obedience and faith. He kind of rolls them all into one. Some even translate the passage as meaning the obedience of faith. Over the next several weeks, we will discuss obedience and grace, how they fit together, and what role we have in our own salvation.

How can justice be served if we don’t get what we deserve? How can we embrace grace without giving license to sin? What does Paul mean when he says that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more? (Romans 5:20) How can I reassure my Muslim friend that grace is not simply a green light to sin?

Jesus told two parables concerning the consequences of obedience. This one was given at the end of the Sermon on the Mount:

 “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts on them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and its collapse was great.” (Matthew 7:24-27)

What is the house? What are the words of Jesus that are heard by us and need to be followed? What are your thoughts about the meaning of this parable in terms of obedience and grace and living the strict life and obeying the commandments? How good can we be? How good must we be? Is it even possible to measure our goodness?

Anonymous: I think grace makes us obedient, helps us to be obedient. So they go hand in hand. Some would ask: “Then why don’t I get grace to keep the commandments or be obedient to God?” So that’s the other arm, which is faith. You have faith, you have grace. You have grace, you have obedience. They’re all connected.

Donald: This is a tough one. If we thought faith was challenging and we needed to spend some time on it, it just seems like this is one you can trip on pretty easily. “Guilt” is another word that probably plays into this conversation.

For lack of a better analogy, I would say that in a good marriage I’m not sure there are rules. I don’t think we spell them out. But we know what they are. And you follow them, not to to stop your marriage from falling apart but because that’s the relationship that you have. And I suppose there’s grace in a marriage, no question about it. You know what’s right, you know what you should do, and you do things because you love each other.

Bryan: If grace is something that God gives us freely, because he wants us to have it, not because of the things we have done to deserve it, and if we are in a place in our life where we are able to see that and understand it and can see the grace in our lives, then grace would beget love, which then would beget obedience, in my mind. So obedience would be the end result of what we perceive as grace, the gift from God freely given.

C-J: For me, it’s not that difficult, because it’s about the relationship I have with God. We are the light. This is the Great Commission, that we are the witness by how we choose to live in God’s grace. For others, they say there’s something different about this group of people. I don’t get it. They don’t have anything to benefit from this choice, personally, and yet they sacrifice for others, willingly. The Commission isn’t getting on a plane and going to another place and saying: “Here’s a book. This is truth.”

I think the relationship we have with the God of grace is all God’s work. And we’re always coming back to “Thy will be done. Forgive me, Lord, for I have sinned. Open my eyes that I might see and willfully come to you with joy and thanksgiving in my heart, for your love is abundant, and I don’t know how to do it.” This is the relationship we have as believers, that others don’t understand. It’s not tangible to them. But if we live it, it becomes something they can see. And they’ll ask those questions: “Tell me more.” They’ll watch carefully. That, to me, is the Great Commission.

Kiran: This is a very confusing concept not just for other religions but also for Christians, because we seldom talk about it. We talk a lot about cheap grace but we don’t talk about actual grace and what it does. A lot of my friends in our vespers group struggle with this issue. We feel guilty when we should not. There is super confusion about this, even in our church.

Let’s say I’m in a very expensive university, and working two jobs to pay for it, and that’s affecting my education. I’m not able to pay my way and get good grades. The president of the university comes to me and says: “I will pay all your debts at the end of the year from my personal account. Go spend as much money as you want to spend, but go ahead and study also.” But if I keep going back to him and asking him: “Are you really going to pay?” it’s an insult to the president, yet that’s exactly what we do. Once he says “I’m going to pay your tuition” I should not think about my tuition anymore. If I have any free time, I should help other people in betterment of their education because I know how painful it is to do two jobs and study.

So for me, as soon as I accept grace, I should not even think about my acceptance by God because it is already taken care of. Whether I’m obedient or not doesn’t matter anymore. But what I am judged on is how I help other people, how I share this grace with others. But for some reason we keep coming back to obedience because we know we cannot be obedient—which is exactly why we have grace!

The problem with cheap grace is you can clearly know people who intentionally take advantage of it and do whatever they want to do. But if we truly examine ourselves, realize how wretched we are, how bad we are, and go to God and accept grace, I don’t think we would be psychopathic, deliberate sinners. We might fall out of weakness, but we won’t go out into the world and start serial killing.

So for me, if we engage in taking care of other people, and then bringing them to Christ, we wouldn’t even fall into such stuff. I think that’s a protection against our own weakness. So I do think that once we accept grace, the question of obedience goes away. But the judgment is about how we share the grace with others.

C-J: People who believe in cheap grace don’t really have a visceral or spiritual understanding of the scars that iniquity leaves. The scars may not show on the outside, but those who’ve walked in sin—perpetually, knowingly—are broken people. Though they may come into grace, they’re going to carry those scars, those wounds, that limp for their lifetime.

Iniquity is a terrible thing we pass on to our children. “Why didn’t you protect me? You knew right from wrong, why did you do that?” It’s learned behavior. It’s spiritual. It’s malnourished. It is a huge responsibility to accept this gift of grace. We cannot do it in the flesh. We can’t even do it knowing right from wrong—we’re gonna fail. It’s an incredible gift of great price.

Pastor Giddi: In my opinion, grace produces faith and faith always produces obedience. Faith without obedience is futile, useless. We read in the book of James that faith without works and works without faith is vanity. Therefore, grace produces faith, and when we realize that we are forgiven, it produces faith in God. Faith in God must lead us to obedience and obedience must bear fruit of maturity.

Reinhard: Paul wrote:

…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,… (Roman 3:23)

and

For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

We are condemned to death. There’s no question of that. Everybody has sinned, without exception. But grace is given to us. Once we accept it through faith, that’s obedience. Paul always stressed that salvation and righteousness are achieved by faith, not by works, because the works will come after we have faith and obey God. Works are the only way we can obey God. We have to have faith in order to accept grace, and that translates to obedience in his law and makes us acceptable in the eyes of God.

There are many verses in the Bible that say we have to do good, we have to obey God’s law. It is not only faith. We have to obey, but in order to obey nobody can come up with the standard, except through faith.

Kiran: All the people in the New Testament who accepted grace performed some works. Did they do those works for their own benefit? To improve their own righteousness? Or did they do those things for others, or to bring others to Christ?

Reinhard: I think mainly for themselves, because you have to work hard for your salvation and share the good news, including the Great Commission. We have to work out our salvation as was intended for us personally.

Bryan: The opposite of grace is karma. With karma, you get what you deserve; with grace, you get what you don’t deserve. It seems to me human nature is a lot more comfortable with karma than it is with grace. Karma seems to be a lot easier to understand. “Well, he got what he deserved!” End of story.

Getting something you don’t deserve seems unrealistic and out of the ordinary, so it takes something extra to be able to embrace receiving things you do not deserve. Faith helps you accept grace, to answer the questions “Why am I able to get something that I do not deserve? What have I done to deserve it?” Karma seems more easy to accept than grace.

Don: Who here is a better person now than they were 10 years ago?

Donald: Why?

Don: The question is linked to obedience, to doing the right thing. It’s linked to the concept called sanctification—the idea that somehow, as a result of grace through faith, things will begin to percolate to a better and better position; that you’ll continue to be refined and will be sanctified. Is this the experience of the common Christian?

David: It seems to me, with respect, that everybody seems to be talking about grace as if it’s a magic potion for this life, I don’t see it that way at all. I see it as a gift for the next life, given at the end of life, as your ticket to the kingdom of heaven. The magic in this life is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the inner voice. This is what’s inside. And this is what the Pharisees whitewash and deny. They won’t let it out. So they are only a shell. They deny the Holy Spirit—the voice of Jesus. To listen to your inner voice is to deny your self and follow Jesus. Grace, to me, is not something that helps you in this life. It helps you transition to the next.

C-J: I see grace every day in my life, in the sense that where I would have had anger, or respond in a way that would only cause the fire to get larger, I oftentimes walk away and say, “God was in the midst, grace abounded.” I held my tongue, I didn’t focus on what I wanted, I listened carefully to what the problem was and found grace to compromise.

I think I am a better person than I was 10 years ago because my relationship with God is different. I don’t think about “Will I get to heaven?” (or whatever’s on the other side of this reality). I don’t think about “Was I good girl today, did I make good choices?” I’m thinking about long term and in terms of not getting scarred, not scarring myself or scarring someone else, expecting God to be God.

The relationship that I have with the divine is always one that I can go and say “Help me to understand.” I think that’s why so many people are in counseling: Guilt, shame, condemnation, fear, and trauma are not productive things. But when we see grace, all of us are capable of loving, and have the right to expect that we are good enough that somebody else would love us here in this space and time; that we all are gifts to one another and if we work at recognizing the beauty in each of us, that’s a lot easier than saying “What is wrong with you?” and not taking responsibility for being an instrument of peace or healing.

I don’t like it when people get up in my face, but getting back up in theirs isn’t going to do anything. But if I say “What would you like me to do? Can I help you?” it changes the paradigm. That to me is grace in action. That to me is something that Connie might not want to do. Connie might want to cut her losses and say “You can keep that nastiness. I don’t want anything to do with you or it. It’s your problem, not mine. I live over there.” But that is not grace.

And that’s what I mean by the grace of God. I see it everywhere, every day. And I hope that I grow here in grace. That’s where the Great Commission is evidenced. It’s not me walking around with a Bible and spouting the road to Rome. It’s me saying kind words when I’m really angry—not to be fake but because as an act of faith it’ll be good bread on the water.

Donald: Am I better 10 years later? Better is an interesting word. We need a ruler to measure it. Whose ruler are we using? We start doing checklists. Because it’s somewhat based in intentions. I’m reluctant to say that I’m better than I was 10 years ago, I hope that I have grown in 10 years; that my understanding has grown, that I’m a better person. I don’t know what those words in some ways really mean. I hope other people can see it. But “better” is a difficult word for me because I think it requires a ruler and with that, grace is no longer required. With a ruler, we can measure all this.

At the heart of our conversation, it seems like we’re trying to earn salvation. That’s selfish. If this whole conversation about God is to earn salvation, I’m not sure that that’s good enough. I think that living the life that God asks of us in and we would want—loving others, loving him—will make a better life on this earth. The next step is not something I have to figure out, whether I’m better, whether I am earning it.

Don: Are you more obedient to God than you were 10 years ago?

Donald: My understanding of God’s expectations of me 10 years ago versus today is different. I’m in a totally different place than I was 10 years ago, in terms of going to work and interacting with people and being productive and doing a day’s worth of work. Now, I get up in the morning and hope that I can be what God wants me to be. That’s what’s important now—my relationships with others. That’s tough sometimes, because we get selfish.

Carolyn: I’m inclined to think that the Holy Spirit plays such a role in our day-to-day living, where selfishness can come in. We must be in tune with the advocate that God gave us to help us. If we do not pay attention to it, I think we’re losing a lot of the help we need to even understand what we’re doing today. I think the Holy Spirit has a way of showing us, talking to us, guiding us. I really think that this is where our challenge is to open our hearts and our minds, that we can readily be in tune with the Holy Spirit daily.

Kiran: This is the confusion. This is exactly the problem with our concept of grace in our church. Martin Luther believed that you won’t achieve righteousness until you’re transformed after the resurrection. But Adventists believe that within this life we can achieve righteousness.

Whether we achieve righteousness in this life or the next, I think the mark of a true Christian or anyone obedient to God would be possessing the hands and feet of Jesus, not for a second thinking of themselves. I think that’s the ideal. For years, I was depressed because I was earning my salvation! I have quit that now. It might sound controversial, but I don’t care about my salvation, because Jesus said he will take care of it.

But I do discipline myself because I know my potential for evil. Left to my own devices, I might commit all the crimes in the world. I know my potential, so I have to restrain myself purposefully. The goodness of God, and being thankful to God, restrains me from doing these evil things. I am open and honest about what I do and what I feel to a very select group of friends who help one another to restrain themselves. Otherwise, left alone, I would just blow up, and I know how dangerous I could be.

But with the help of God, and accepting the free gift of grace, the gratitude I have enables me to not think about myself, but just go 110% for the other person. Sometimes I wonder why I am doing this, but I don’t know. It’s something that enables you to do something beyond, for other people.

Whether I feel good about myself or not, I was so oblivious to my nature 10 years ago I didn’t even see many waves that I created in this water. Now I see how many different and complex ways I could affect another person, and the more I think about myself and how I can affect other people the more I realize there isn’t anything I can do to fix myself. I truly realize how hopeless that effort is. The only thing I do is I really appreciate the grace of Christ, because there is nothing else I could do to save myself.

Don: Do you think it’s better to clean the outside of the cup and leave the inside dirty and be a hypocrite, or to leave the outside and the inside dirty and not be a hypocrite?

C-J: I think of people who’ve really fallen off the edge of the table, people who are desperate inside and outside—like an addict, or someone who’s committed murder (excluding those with mental health issues they can’t really control, who can’t tell right from wrong consistently). I think the most important thing is to be authentic in your joy, authentic in your pain, authentic in your fear.

Without good people we trust to whom we can say “I’m hurting, I’m afraid. I can’t believe how angry I got. I feel so alone. I have no idea where I am at this point. I don’t know right from upside down. I’m just stuck.” If we can’t be authentic, if we can’t trust someone to ask those hard questions, and to genuinely pray in humility, to give us a way up and out of there, whether it’s professional help, spiritual help, a good friend. Even if you’re not even talking about the problem, in that moment you feel safe and loved.

This is what I mean about that relationship and grace in the here and now, I have no idea when God’s going to say “Connie, your number’s up, please follow me through this door.” I can’t think about that. There’s so much here and now. Because my personal walk has been such a struggle I’ve come to the place that I can only trust God, I can only come look for good teachers, look for people who are further along than me and have a visceral understanding when I go to them.

They don’t say “Just pray Connie.” What do you think I’ve been doing? In addiction they say: “Just walk the walk until you get there. Fake it till you make it.” To me that’s nonsense. I understand make good choices. But that doesn’t get to the root. And God is always looking for the root. What’s the root, Connie? Is your root next to cool, sweet water? Or are you in a mud hole? Just get up out of that mud hole and get to where the cool, clean, spring water is.

Sometimes I need to reach out and say I need help and be authentic, hiding nothing. There are times where we should be afraid of ourselves. It is grace. It is mercy. And it is God’s promise to us that we will not fail as long as our hand is in his hand. We’re in covenant relationship. And I take that very seriously. Lord, I trust that what you begin you will finish and you will not fail. I’ve clung to that many, many times. And sooner or later I get up out of that place. And I do feel I’ve learned and I’m extremely grateful for grace.

Don: I’m pretty much a grumpy old man. “Get off my lawn.!”But I am able to control myself and say, “Would you please get off my lawn?” But that’s not what I am. Is that hypocrisy? Does God expect me to say “Please get off my lawn” instead of “Get off my lawn!” Is that a degree of obedience? I’m sorry, go ahead.

Anonymous: It’s hypocrisy for sure, because the outside is not like the inside.

C-J: Hypocrisy to me is when you know the difference and you don’t make the right choice. In your heart. The other social decorum—we have to live together and make nice I don’t think it’s hypocricy. He’s being authentic when he says “You don’t live here. Get off my lawn!” or “Pick up your after your dog!” I don’t see that as hypocrisy. I think he understands social decorum. And he obeys it. But I also think I feel the same way. Why do I even have to say that?

I think we’re too hard on ourselves. We are human. We are made of clay and iniquity. And the whole thing is, when we’re learning to do something better, we’re told “Do it again. Do it again. Again. You’re close, Again.” But when you can finally go out and either not say anything to the person whose dog just walked away from your yard, or someone who walked on your yard, or go out and say, “Good morning, have a nice day!” and feel it because the spirit is in alignment.

Hypocrisy is a hard word. My relationship with God is one of “I know you feel this way. So let’s not look at what you feel. Let’s look at what you can do.” Are you going to extend grace because grace has been given? Are you going to do it as an example of what makes you different from other people—not better, different. You do have grace and you will extend grace. You can still say “I caught you.” “I know you don’t want me to walk on your yard. You’re right. I won’t. Sorry. Have a nice day.” “You too.” It’s real. It’s being authentic. That person knows what he or she did wasn’t the best thing and they discounted you.

It isn’t so much they walked on your grass and you’re not going to have a strip if they do it once. Or that “You can go out and pick up the dog’s mess, Connie.” It’s the attitude adjustment. It’s understanding how big a problem is that? Where are you putting your energy for that incident? Hypocrisy is using the measuring stick that Donald’s talking about. I don’t think Grace has a measuring stick. It’s a free will offering. I’m not counting up to see how much I have left. How many quarters do I still have in my pocket, if I give you this quarter. It’s just Here!” And you don’t think about it. It’s not a count. It’s not a loss. It’s just grace. That’s the beauty of it. I hate the word hypocrisy.

Don: We have much to work on over the next few weeks with respect to grace, obedience, self righteousness, hypocrisy, and living the good life as God expects of us. What does the parable we read on the wise man and the foolish man mean? In one case, he heard the words and obeyed them. And in the other case, he heard the words and didn’t obey them.

And then there’s another parable that I’d like you to think about. And that’s the parable of the two sons whose father asked them to go into the field. One says, “I won’t go,” yet he goes anyway. And the other one says, “I will go,” yet does not go. What does that teach us about obedience and grace and God’s expectation?

Donald: There’s one other thing that I think was part of your question that needs to be discussed here. Our discussion this morning has revealed our personalities. I’m a grumpy old man. I think that one’s disposition to life is very important. It’s a lot easier to be generous with others if you have a generous spirit about you. If you’re grumpy, it’s a lot of work. We each have personality, and it plays a role here.

Reinhard: Jesus criticizes the Pharisees because they don’t do what they preach. They put the burden of salvation on the people but they themselves don’t do what the commandments say.


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