Asking the clergy about righteousness
What makes a good person? How about a righteous one?
Pastor Stephen Willoughby, First Baptist of Patchogue:
There are many times we try to be good, but the Bible tells us no one is truly good. The only one who can be righteous is someone who has found forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
Good people don't go to heaven. Only those who have found forgiveness and are righteous in Jesus can go to heaven.
People's standards of who is a good person and who is a righteous person may differ, but the ultimate standard is the one from God.
Pastor Jim D. Ryan, president, Lighthouse Mission, Bellport:
Biblically you can't be a good person. And you can only be a righteous person through Christ.
I am a professed "Jesus freak" and therefore believe the Bible to be the true Word of God (2 Timothy 3: 16). Therefore, I use it to guide my life and answer every question that comes across my path.
In the Gospel of Mark 10:18, we read about a man who fell to his knees in front of Jesus and asked, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good -- except God alone"
So, if God alone is good, then maybe we can be righteous?
The Bible also says in Romans 3:10, "There is no one righteous, not even one." Perhaps this is a trick question and can't be answered? Well, here is the good news. Jesus says in Matthew 6:33: "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
The only way to become righteous in God's eyes is to humble ourselves before God and ask him to forgive our sins and invite his son Jesus into our lives as our only true savior. Only then can God see us as a righteous person.
Edward J. Klein, leader, Queens Community for Cultural Judaism, Jamaica Estates:
If you're righteous in the modern sense, you're a little bit more than just good. A Secular Humanist Jew can't identify with the characteristics of righteous in the religious senses -- pious, meek and humble. Righteous in the religious sense has characteristics that the Secular Humanist can't relate to. So, in a religious sense, for a Secular Humanist, good is better.
For a Secular Humanist, the word "righteous" is problematic. A Secular Humanistic Jew is not pious, meek or humble, has no concept of "sin" against God, regards Jewish law as the customs and ceremonies of the Jewish people from which he can pick and choose what is meaningful, and is not a person inspired by the Holy Spirit who has a religious relationship with God.
However, a Secular Humanistic Jew could be called righteous in the modern sense: A person of dignity whose actions go beyond the letter of the law to its spirit and who is an ethical, moral, generous and charitable person.
Rabbi Greg Epstein, the Humanist chaplain at Harvard University, recently wrote a book titled "Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe" (William Morrow, October 2009, $29). Writing a book called "Righteous Without God," would have been a far more difficult task.
Pastor Steve Schick, Middle Island United Church of Christ:
When we think of a good person, we think of someone who exhibits moral virtue, so I believe we all aspire to be good people. From the standpoint of biblical Christianity, it is far better to be a righteous person than a "good" person. The Bible says that "no one is good, no not one." Those words may seem harsh, but when humankind is compared with the holiness of God, we always fall short no matter how good we are.
None of us is able to be a righteous person without help from God. Through the work of Jesus on the cross, He provided a way through faith that we all could be made righteous. The Bible says that "in Christ we might become the righteousness of God." Grace is all about relying on Christ for our righteousness, and not trying to be good on our own merits. I vote for righteousness over goodness any day.
