[Roundtable] The Psychology of Works Righteousness

[Jefferis Peterson]

I had this discussion online a few years ago, but there have been a few
requests lately for more information. It is rather long... Sorry...

Subject: [Theologos] The Psycho-dynamics of Righteousness - part 1
 
On 12/19/03 9:09 AM, "William Witt" wrote:

  

> Why would it be works righteousness to suggest that staying away from

> worship is a sin, but it is not works righteousness to suggest that

> stealing or lying are sins?



Bill   
I'm going to re-title this discussion and start with a clean approach
because I think both of you have missed my point.

I want to take a look at Romans 7 and 8 as a means of elucidating what I
believe Paul was trying to get across  in the scriptures I cited. No one
would argue that there is good and evil or right and wrong, but Paul's main
argument is that the Law is powerless in its production of righteousness in
us. In fact, if we attempt to live by the law and secure, establish or
produce divine righteousness in ourselves - such attempts are
counterproductive. Why would Paul says this and what dynamic is he
addressing? 

³But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive,
so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the
Spirit. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it
had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have
known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ³You shall not covet.²
But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of
covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from
the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died; the very
commandment which promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, finding
opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. So the law
is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Did that which is
good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me
through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and
through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.² Romans 7:6-13,
RSV.

Paul starts this chapter by comparing our obligation to the law to the law
of marriage, but when one spouse dies, one is free. In the same way, a dead
man has no obligation to the Law:

> Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of

> Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from

> the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.


Now it is important to point out here that Paul uses as his example the law
against covetousness. This is plainly a moral law, not a ritual one - just
as is the law to honor God, parents, not commit adultery, etc. are moral
laws. They are holy and they are good. Yet Paul still sees that this written
code is powerless to produce true righteousness. It weighs upon the heart
and conscience as an obligation, but one which cannot be mastered or
fulfilled. In fact, the very awareness of the 'ought' of the law, instead of
producing righteousness worked against it. This is a common psycho dynamic -
what is forbidden becomes even more a temptation than that which is not
forbidden. And Paul says basically that: once a person is dead, what was
forbidden no longer applies to that man, nor do the obligations to fulfill
that law because a dead person is dead to the whole system of good and bad.
We died in Christ. 

Paul goes even further. He points out that the very attempt to find
righteousness in ourselves or establish it in ourselves through obedience to
the law fails at the root, because by looking to ourselves and our attempts
to be righteous, we actually build up what Christ has abolished. We do that
in two ways. One characteristic of the flesh, or sin nature, is to establish
in oneself an independent righteousness or life apart from God, as if by our
good deeds we might become worthy of eternal life. This process of sinful
independence started with Adam who sought to establish an independent basis
of judgment about good and evil and it primarily the definition of "the
flesh" in Romans. An independent spirit looks for righteousness in one's own
performance and meritorious service, as if by that conformity to the law, we
might merit the grace and salvation and eternal life. The problem for Paul
is that we can never look for any righteousness in ourselves, and especially
not by our outward conformity to the law, even if that law be the moral law.
The reason is that righteousness is not ours by performance - it is ours as
a free gift that we have not as a possession by as an expression of our
relationship of dependence upon God - who is our righteousness:


> Rom 10:3 For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish

their own   righteousness, they didn't subject themselves to the righteousness
of God.  For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone
who believes.

If Christ is the fulfillment of righteousness for all who have faith,  then
how can we look to our performance of the law to gage or measure that
righteousness? IF we look to our performance, we are not looking to Christ -
who is our righteousness. And Paul says that the Law is powerless when used
is this way.


> I Cor 1:30    But of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom

from God,  and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption

> 31    that, according as it is written, "He who boasts, let him boast in the

> Lord."



So, let us look at the good thing of the Lord's supper and being in
fellowship with one another. Are these things Bad or somehow antithetical to
righteousness? NO. But they are not the MEANS of righteousness, for Christ
is righteousness to all who believe.  In fact, Jesus tells Paul that
sanctification is the result - not of works of the law - but of faith {Acts
26:18}. Holiness is produced by faith in Christ.

> Rom 3:8    We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from

>the works  of the law.

So, if we want to attain holiness or sanctification, even that is not to be
achieved by conformity to the law or performance of good deeds - rather it
is to be received by faith through the gift of the Spirit of Righteousness.

Let me digress for a moment and apply the  Law of New Moons, and Feast days,
and Holydays, and Sabbaths  - which is being taught as a new law of
Christian righteousness - to other aspects of the good.
Paul says we should pray without ceasing. Now no one would say that this is
a bad thing. It is good. However, by the account of this being good, when
can we not pray without it being sin? If going to church on Sunday is good,
and not going is a sin; then not praying at any time is also a sin, since we
are counseled the scriptures, the saints, and the Fathers of the Church to
pray without ceasing. How much therefore is enough to be pleasing to God?
How much praying must we do to be good, to be righteous and not be in sin?
It is also good to read the word and study to show thyself approved. But if
we fail to read that word continually, are we not guilty of the same type of
offense as missing Mass? If we spend time with our spouses or play with our
children, we are neither praying or reading - and God forbid if we should go
to a play or movie or concert, or create art or any other thing that diverts
us from this instruction to pray without ceasing or reading the word.


If this is a new law of good intentions placed upon the backs of Christians
as the yoke of the law by well meaning leaders of the church, what harm is
it since there needs to be order and the flock must be cared for and guided
in righteousness? How can this not conform to Christ since these things are
good in themselves to do? And obviously anyone who does not do them is
showing a sinful and stubborn rebellion against continuous fellowship with
God??? What pride must there be in the heart to have one not praying
continuously and reading the word!?  What foolish diversion is a job or
pleasure that takes one's mind from these goods?

The law I received when I was first saved was the law of quiet time. I must
spend at least a half an hour a day in prayer and seeking God or else I was
being disobedient - and suddenly Christ's righteousness was no avail to me -
no, it was me who must perform that half and hour a day to stay righteous
and acceptable to God. That half hour was my ticket to being obedient and
therefore the MEANS of my righteousness. Who could complain against this
good counsel of seeking God daily? Yet that which was supposed to produce
life in me, produced death instead! If a half an hour was good, an hour was
better. How much praying and seeking must I do to stay in God's good
graces??? The leadership told me if I did not do these things, it was a sin.

No matter how much I prayed or time I spent, it was never enough because I
could always do more. The problem was that it was my performance that was
the issue - not Jesus' free gift of righteousness to me. Suddenly if mass be
skipped or prayers not made, Christ's righteousness was of no avail to me.
The only way I could return to God's favor was to perform those outward
duties no longer inspired by love and desire but by fear of rejection. The
new law of quiet time destroyed the power of the Gospel.  And so I came to
know what Paul meant:

> Gal 2 & 4 yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but

> through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might

> be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because no

> flesh will be justified by the works of the law.

> ... You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law.

> You have fallen away from grace.


Grace no longer mattered. Consciousness of the law produces human attempts
at self justification - if the motivation is to be right with God - a
motivation which Paul  describes as death.

and:

> Rom 9:30    What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn't follow

> after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which

> is of faith; 31    BUT ISRAEL, FOLLOWING AFTER A LAW OF RIGHTEOUSNESS,

> DIDN'T ARRIVE AT THE LAW OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 32    WHY? BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T

> SEEK IT BY FAITH, BUT AS IT WERE BY WORKS OF THE LAW. They stumbled over the

> stumbling stone; 33    even as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a

> stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will

> be disappointed."


Those who seek laws fear that Paul's teaching will lead to lawlessness, and
so the party of James came in to insist on retaining the Sabbath and
circumcision and other aspects of feasts and fasts, new moons, and kosher
foods. They feared  and so mocked his teaching  thinking it would produce
all sorts of chaos and sensual abandon.  But Paul had a better way...

> Rom 10:3 For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish

> their own   righteousness, they didn't subject themselves to the righteousness

> of God.  For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to

> everyone who believes.



> If Christ is the fulfillment of righteousness for all who have faith,  then

> how can we look to our performance of the law to gage or measure that

> righteousness? IF we look to our performance, we are not looking to Christ -

> who is our righteousness. And Paul says that the Law is powerless when used

> is this way.

I want to add here: how can we make more full what is already fulfilled? If
the law is fulfilled for us, how can we add anything to his righteousness or
to that  righteousness he completed on our behalf? Is it not saying to
Jesus, "sorry, your righteousness is not good enough for me, I must add my
own to the mix so that God will accept me..."



Now on to Part 2.  Rom 8 -

> For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law

> of sin and of death. 3    For what the law couldn't do, in that it was weak

> through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful

> flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; 4    that the ordinance of

> the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after

> the Spirit. 


What man cannot do in order to be acceptable is to obey rules of the law to
gain favor with God. But we are not left in the state of performance.
Remember Paul says we are not dead just to ritual laws, but to moral laws as
well [covetousness] since even those laws are powerless when it comes to
creating inward righteousness. Nor are we left to abandon ourselves to the
power of sin and all its enslaving passions. Indeed, those who try to
perform according to the law, are embroiled in inner conflict in which the
enslaving passions have more power through increased temptation and through
the enabling power of a guilty conscience. No. That man who "must live
right" has been crucified with Christ. He is dead, and any attempt to make
that man righteous is like trying to perfect manure. The old man stinketh
and the odor of rotten flesh testifies to the powerlessness of the old way.

Instead, there is a new way - no longer compelled by the 'ought' of the law
or by fear of the consequence of failure - this new way is an expression of
the holiness and righteousness of God already present in us working its way
out through our lives. The Spirit who is righteous lives his life in us {no
longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me}, and the Spirit of Holiness
enables us by His righteousness to fulfill the goodness of the law through
love and desire. 


> Rom 13: 8    Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves

> his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9    For the commandments, "You shall not

> commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall

> not give false testimony," "You shall not covet," 10    Love doesn't harm a

> neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.


In short, we - who walk not by the law but by the Spirit - fulfill the just
requirements of the law, not by following a list of do's and don'ts but by
following the royal law of love. We do not obey in order to be acceptable,
we obey because we are already are accepted and already have his
righteousness within us. We do not obey in order to be righteous or gain
righteousness - for how can we buy what is already ours? The righteous, holy
God already lives within us, and we yield and cooperate with his awesome and
enabling power to be the image of Christ on the earth. {Paul speaks of this
conformity to the character of Christ in Rom 6 as a process of learning to
yield - but the truth of the power of the Gospel is already present to us,
whether we have recognized it in its fullness or not.}

Because of the exceeding greatness of the righteousness of Christ, Paul
weighs against the legalisms of performance because they trivialize Christ's
righteousness. The outward observances of new moons and Sabbaths, kosher
foods, quiet times, or Mass days  put ritual acts on an equal footing with
Christ's own infinite righteousness. They make man's performance equivalent
with the righteousness of God, as if by the observance of outward signs we
would be establishing the righteousness of Christ within.

Now what I was trying to say at the beginning of this discussion is that
whenever you start setting up rules and laws, do's and don'ts, like steps on
a ladder which must be obeyed in order to be good and not sin, you
reinstitute the psycho-dynamic of law based behavior - perform these acts or
else you sin. Like reinstituting the law against covetousness, the law stirs
up guilt, fear, and doubt in our relationship to God, causing us to feel
condemned by our failures of performance, then  striving to obey to gain
acceptance and relieve the guilt, and then to either succumb to pride,
thinking we have succeeded, or depression, knowing we have failed the
standard. This whole pattern of performance is what Paul was talking about
as the inevitable consequence of law based performance. And it is the reason
I am so against the legalisms of Mass days, quiet times, etc., unless one is
drawn to them not out of the need to perform in order to retain God's favor
but out of the drawing of the Spirit and the desire of love to be in God's
presence and seek his face.

Paul was saying that the ONLY way to walk in the Spirit and fulfill the just
requirements of the law is by Faith in Christ's sufficient righteousness. He
has paid the full price for our acceptance and our righteousness is been
bought and paid for by him. We cannot add to or take away from his purchase
for us. In fact, by our attempts to purchase righteousness through our
performance, we offend the Giver of the gift and cut ourselves "off from
grace "  by thinking we might pay for with our good deeds what Christ as
paid for us with his own blood.

Finally, I put it this way:
Was Christ's sacrifice enough for us?
Shall we say:
No - I must go to Mass to be worthy of his sacrifice.
No - I must have quiet time and add that to his sacrifice.
No - his blood wasn't enough, I must add to his work some good deed of my
own.
 No!
Was His sacrifice good enough for us?
Yes, it was more than enough that we do not need to add one iota to it. He
is sufficient for our every need and his sacrifice is all the righteousness
we will ever need. Do not  trivialize his sacrifice on the Cross by adding
some ritual act or behavior to the blood on the altar in the Holy of Holies.
It would profane his sacrifice.

Jeff
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jefferis Peterson, Pres.
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