Righteousness vs. Religion

Fear of sin does not produce righteousness! The reverence for, and faith in, the One who has overcome sin is the only thing that produces righteousness. Not even the fear of offending God produces righteousness, rather it produces a cold, technical, unfeeling, letter-of-the-law, purely religious, ritualistic robotic pattern of living that has no life in it, for it does not operate by love for God.

The Word is clear that Love and Fear can not co-exist. Like water and oil, one can get a temporary and uneasy mixture, but when the agitating stops they will separate, one being unable to adapt to the basic structure of the other. Love, it is written, casts out fear! Righteousness is produced therefore, only by recognizing God's great love and reciprocating. It is truly that simple. Why we insist on mixing in other things that require so much energy and work, like one trying to mix water into the oil, I do not know.

It is also written that the “Just”, or morally justified, shall live by faith. It is also written that faith works through love. So you begin to see the pattern, and establish the criteria by which God determines righteousness. It is written that Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him as righteousness. Pretty plain isn't it. Accept God's love, return it, and be counted as among His righteous ones.

The rub comes, as the English love to say, when we attempt to manifest love out of these primarily self-oriented human souls, we tend to want to skip the first part – accepting His love. We must accept His Love, and let our souls be saturated with it before we can hope to reproduce it! We must let it come in so that it can first cast out the fear that brings the darkness and death into our lives. We must first surrender our rights to having our way in every decision, large or small.

That condition that is so lightly referred to as “the salvation experience” is nothing less than a miracle, and how we ever get there is a mystery. But, again, it is written that, “The Spirit draws ….” . He, Himself, coaxes us home – the question is if we will ever get homesick enough to answer, or to follow that pull. Is your righteousness based on fear or faith? Something in each of us longs for home. We tend to think of that in human terms of course, mother, food, warmth, nurturing, etc. but those things are all elements of love, and all emanate from one source – a loving creator. Faith in that loving God, not fear of Him, is what leads us home. Isn't that how it should be?