Righteousness

Jesus said, “I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). Is Jesus telling us that we cannot enter the Kingdom unless we are righteous? But I was always taught that there is none righteous, no not one. After all, our righteousness is as filthy rags to God, right? Does God view our righteousness as filthy rags? The prophet Isaiah said, “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Undoubtedly, this passage is one of the most frequently quoted Old Testament passages heard in modern Gospel presentations. For instance, the following quote is one of many that demonstrate this verse’s common usage:

The righteousness of man? Inadequate, right? In fact, Isaiah said, “All our righteousness is as filthy rags…filthy rags. Very graphic term in the Hebrew. A man can’t be right with God by anything done on the human side.^¹

A closer look at the Isaiah passage reveals a context which leads to an opposite conclusion. In fact, in the previous verse Isaiah says, “You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways” (Isaiah 64:5). That suggests that he who does righteousness does obtain favor from God. So what does Isaiah mean with a seemingly contradictory statement that our righteousness is as filthy rags? Isaiah was offering a prayer of penitence to God on behalf of apostate Israel as a whole. Isaiah said,

You are indeed angry, for we have sinned— In these ways we continue; And we need to be saved. But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities. (Isaiah 64:5-7)

Thus, collective Israel’s righteousness was like filthy rags because they had sinned, continued in sin, and become like an unclean thing in their apostasy. Israel had no righteousness because they were in rebellion. Isaiah was not saying that the good works of individuals were as filthy rags to God. Isaiah was speaking as a representative of collective Israel. Was it true that there was “no one who calls” on the Lord’s name? Isaiah was calling on the Lord at that very moment in his prayer. Thus, he was speaking generally about the nation as a whole. The imagery of garments (i.e. filthy rags) is integral to our entering the Kingdom. In Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast in which He said,

But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” (Matthew 22:11-13)

Thus when Jesus concluded, “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14), the “called” refers not to those who were “not willing to come,” but to those who responded to the Gospel and showed up at the wedding feast. Yet they were removed from the wedding because they had no wedding garment. Likewise, Jesus said to the lukewarm Laodicean Church,

“Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.” (Revelation 3:17,18)

To the dead church of Sardis, Jesus said,

“You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” (Revelation 3:4,5)

This calls to mind the same imagery of Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast and the need to be clothed with a wedding garment. Furthermore, in Revelation 19:7,8, the wedding feast and marriage supper of the Lamb are brought to our attention again:

“Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. (Revelation 19:7,8)

So what does the wedding garment of Jesus’ parable represent? The bride of Christ in Revelation made herself ready for the wedding by arraying herself in fine linen, clean and white, which is “the righteous acts of the saints.” This is not being clothed in the imputed righteousness of Christ or the righteous acts of Jesus, but the righteous acts of the saints. The “called” man in Jesus’ wedding feast parable who was cast into outer darkness had no wedding garment and thus no righteous acts of his own. It is the wrinkled, spotted, filthy and defiled garment that represents a person who is stained with iniquity. Jude said, “And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh” (Jude 22,23). How does a garment become defiled by the flesh? Paul the Apostle explained,
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Truly we live in a day when professing Christians are afraid of pursuing personal holiness and righteousness. They insist that they possess the imputed righteousness of Christ and that there is no need for them to practice righteousness themselves or walk as Jesus walked. These babes know nothing of the Gospel. The Apostle John tells us, “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked” (1 John 2:6) and, “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him” (1 John 2:29). On this note, John Wesley, Anglican cleric and Christian theologian, wrote this pertinent exhortation:

A Blow at the Root by John Wesley

1. “WITHOUT holiness no man shall see the Lord,” shall see the face of God in glory. Nothing under heaven can be more sure than this; “for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. And though heaven and earth pass away, yet his word shall not pass away.” As well therefore might God fall from heaven, as his word fall to the ground. No, it cannot be; none shall live with God, but he that now lives to God; none shall enjoy the glory of God in heaven, but he that bears the image of God on earth; none that is not saved from sin here can be saved from hell hereafter; none can see the kingdom of God above, unless the kingdom of God be in him below. Whosoever will reign with Christ in heaven, must have Christ reigning in him on earth. He must have “that mind in him which was in Christ,” enabling him “to walk as Christ also walked.”

2. And yet as sure as this is, and as clearly as it is taught in every part of the Holy Scripture, there is scarce one among all the truths of God, which is less received by men. It was indeed acknowledged in some degree, even among the wiser Heathens. Some among them allowed, that nothing would please God, but the sancti recessus mentis, et incoctum generoso pectus honesto; “a virtuous, holy mind, and an heart deep-dyed with generous honesty.” But though they could not deny, yet how easily and effectually did they evade this! They fancied something else would do as well; that some rites or ceremonies, some external forms, or glorious actions, would supply the place of inward holiness. So the famous

Roman entitles to future happiness, not only the good and virtuous, but all

Ob patriam pugnando vulnera passos,
Quique pii vates, et Phœbo digna locuti;
Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes.

So, to fight for their country, to write good verses, or to invent useful arts, was abundantly sufficient, in the judgment of the wisest Heathens, to give men a place in heaven!

3. But this would not pass with modern Romans. They despised such gross imaginations. But though they did not allow these, they found out another way to get to heaven without holiness. In the room of them they substituted penances, pilgrimages, praying to saints and angels; and, above all these, masses for the dead, absolution by a Priest, and extreme unction. And these satisfy the Romanists full as well as lustrations did the Heathens. Thousands of them make no manner of doubt, but, by a diligent use of these, without any holiness at all, they shall see the Lord in glory.

4. However, Protestants will not be satisfied thus; they know this hope is no better than a spider’s web. They are convinced, that whoever leans on this, leans on the staff of a broken reed. What then can they do? How shall they hope to see God, without holiness? Why, by doing no harm, doing good, going to the church and sacrament. And many thousands sit down content with this, believing they are in the high road to heaven.

5. Yet many cannot rest here. They look upon this as the very Popery of Protestantism. They well know, that although none can be a real Christian, without carefully abstaining from all evil, using every means of grace at every opportunity, and doing all possible good to all men; yet a man may go thus far, may do all this, and be but an Heathen still. They know this religion is too superficial; it is but as it were skin-deep. Therefore, it is not Christianity; for that lies in the heart; it is worshipping God in spirit and in truth; it is no other than “the kingdom of God within us;” it is the life of God in the soul of man; it is the mind which was in Christ Jesus; it is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”

6. Besides, they see that, be this religion shallower or deeper, it does not stand on the right foundation; since “other foundation” for true religion “can no man lay, than that which is laid, even Christ Jesus;” since no one can have the mind which was in Christ, till he is justified by his blood, till he is forgiven and reconciled to God through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. And none can be justified, they are well assured, but by faith, even faith alone; seeing “to him” only “that believeth on God who justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted to him for righteousness.”

7. What evasion now? What way could Satan take to make all this light of none effect? What could be done when that grand truth, “By grace ye are saved through faith,” was more and more generally received? What, indeed, but to persuade the very men who had received it, to “turn the grace of God into lasciviousness?” To this end Simon Magus appeared again, and taught, “that Christ had done, as well as suffered, all; that his righteousness being imputed to us, we need none of our own; that seeing there was so much righteousness and holiness in Him, there needs none in us; that to think we have any, or to desire or seek any, is to renounce Christ; that from the beginning to the end of salvation, all is in Christ, nothing in man; and that those who teach otherwise are legal Preachers, and know nothing of the gospel.”

8. This is indeed “a blow at the root,” the root of all holiness, all true religion. Hereby Christ is “stabbed in the house of his friends,” of those who make the largest professions of loving and honouring him; the whole design of his death, namely, “to destroy the works of the devil,” being overthrown at a stroke. For wherever this doctrine is cordially received, it leaves no place for holiness. It demolishes it from top to bottom; it destroys both root and branch. It effectually tears up all desire of it, all endeavour after it. It forbids all such exhortations as might excite those desires, or awaken those endeavours. Nay, it makes men afraid of personal holiness, afraid of cherishing any thought of it, or motion toward it, lest they should deny the faith, and reject Christ and his righteousness: So that, instead of being “zealous of good works,” they are a stink in their nostrils.

And they are infinitely more afraid of “the works of God,” than of “the works of the devil.”

9. Here is wisdom! though not the wisdom of the saints, but wisdom from beneath. Here is the masterpiece of Satan: Farther than this he cannot go. Men are holy, without a grain of holiness in them! holy in Christ, however unholy in themselves; they are in Christ, without one jot of the mind that was in Christ; in Christ, though their nature is whole in them. They are “complete in him,” though they are, in themselves, as proud, as vain, as covetous, as passionate as ever. It is enough: They may be unrighteous still, seeing Christ has “fulfilled all righteousness.”

10. “O ye simple ones, how long will ye love simplicity?” How long will ye “seek death in the error of your life?” “Know ye not,” whoever teacheth you otherwise, “that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” “Be not deceived;” although there are many lie in wait to deceive, and that under the fair pretence of exalting Christ; — a pretence which the more easily steals upon you, because “to you he is precious.” But as the Lord liveth, “neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” “Such” indeed “were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified,” as well as “justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” You are really changed; you are not only accounted, but actually “made, righteous.” “The law” — the inward power — “of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made” you “free” — really, actually free — “from the law” or power “of sin and death.” This is liberty, true gospel liberty, experienced by every believer: Not freedom from the law of God, or the works of God, but from the law of sin and the works of the devil. See that ye “stand fast in” this real, not imaginary “liberty, wherewith Christ hath made you free.” And take heed ye “be not entangled again,” by means of these vain boasters, “in the yoke of ” that vile “bondage to sin,” from which ye are now clean escaped. I testify unto you, that if you still continue in sin, Christ shall profit you nothing; that Christ is no Saviour to you, unless he saves you from your sins; and that unless it purify your heart, faith shall profit you nothing. O when will ye understand, that to oppose either inward or outward holiness, under colour of exalting Christ, is directly to act the part of Judas, to “betray the Son of man with a kiss?” Repent, repent! lest he cut you in sunder with the two-edged sword that cometh out of his mouth! It is you yourselves that, by opposing the very end of his coming into the world, are crucifying the Son of God afresh, and putting him to an open shame. It is you that, by expecting to see the Lord without holiness, through the righteousness of Christ, “make the blood of the covenant an unholy thing,” keeping those unholy that so trust in it. O beware! for evil is before you. If those who name not the name of Christ, and die in their sins, shall be punished seven-fold, surely you who thus make Christ a minister of sin, shall be punished seventy-and-seven fold. What; make Christ destroy his own kingdom? make Christ a factor for Satan? set Christ against holiness? talk of Christ as saving his people in their sins? It is no better than to say, He saves them from the guilt, and not from the power, of sin. Will you make the righteousness of Christ such a cover for the unrighteousness of man? So that by this means, “the unrighteous” of every kind “shall inherit the kingdom of God!” Stop! Consider! What are you doing? You did run well: Who hath bewitched you? Who hath corrupted you from the simplicity of Christ, from the purity of the gospel? You did know, “He that believeth is born of God: And whosoever is born of God sinneth not;” but while “he keepeth himself, that wicked one toucheth him not.” O come back to the true, the pure, the old gospel! that which ye received in the beginning. Come back to Christ, who died to make you an holy people, “zealous of good works.” “Remember from whence you are fallen, and repent, and do the first works.” Your “Father worketh hitherto:” Do ye work; else your faith is vain. For “wilt thou know, O vain,” O empty “man, that faith without works is dead?” Wilt thou know that “though I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing?” Wilt thou know, that all the blood and righteousness of Christ, unless “that mind be in thee which was in Him,” and thou likewise “walk as Christ walked,” will only increase thy damnation? “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about strife of words, whereof come railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth.” Be no longer afraid of the strongest exhortations either to inward or outward holiness. Hereby God the Father is glorified, and God the Son truly exalted. Do not stupidly and senselessly call this legal, — a silly, unmeaning word. Be not afraid of being “under the law of God,” but of being under “the law of sin.” Love the strictest preaching best; that which most searches the heart, and shows you wherein you are unlike Christ; and that which presses you most to love him with all your heart, and serve him with all your strength.

11. Suffer me to warn you of another silly, unmeaning word: Do not say, “I can do nothing.” If so, then you know nothing of Christ; then you have no faith: For if you have, if you believe, then you “can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth you.” You can love him and keep his commandments; and to you his “commandments are not grievous.” Grievous to them that believe! Far from it. They are the joy of your heart. Show then your love to Christ by keeping his commandments, by walking in all his ordinances blameless. Honour Christ by obeying him with all your might, by serving him with all your strength. Glorify Christ by imitating Christ in all things, by walking as he walked. Keep to Christ by keeping in all his ways. Trust in Christ, to live and reign in your heart. Have confidence in Christ that he will fulfil in you all his great and precious promises, that he will work in you all the good pleasure of his goodness, and all the work of faith with power. Cleave to Christ, till his blood have cleansed you from all pride, all anger, all evil desire. Let Christ do all. Let him that has done all for you, do all in you. Exalt Christ as a Prince to give repentance; a Saviour both to give remission of sins, and to create in you a new heart, to renew a right spirit within you. This is the gospel, the pure, genuine gospel; glad tidings of great salvation. Not the new, but the old, the everlasting gospel, the gospel not of Simon Magus, but of Jesus Christ. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give you, “according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that, being rooted and grounded in love, ye may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the length, and breadth, and depth, and height; and to know that love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God!”