R&I – TxPat ***
The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous, and his ears toward their cry. (Psalm 34:15 RSV)
A righteous person is not one who lives a religiously pious life, the common interpretation of this word, he is one who follows the correct path, the path (way) of God.
So often do I see that “believing” is an activity God would like us to perform. At least from the Christian perspective. Nothing pleases God more than believing. And if you believe the correct things, all good flows from this faith. Then what usually gets referenced is the following verse:
6 And he believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.
So did God randomly pick a human to promise that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars?
And did Abraham, at the point of believing God and his promise, suddenly become righteous because of the faith that God would do what he promised?
Or is the opposite true? Abraham is already a follower of God, someone who already has faith in him, and the context stresses Abraham’s good works and righteousness:
- He defeated the evil kings.
- He rescued Lot and the other captives.
- He went to a priest of God and gave thanks for the victory.
- He refused any reward from the wicked king of Sodom.
- And so God himself promised to give Abraham a reward instead.
The fact that God is rewarding Abraham for what he has done shows this isn’t a case of a sinner coming to God and repenting so he can obtain forgiveness. It’s God rewarding a follower for faithful service. That means Abraham isn’t acquiring righteousness here for the first time. He is already righteous, as his actions have shown. Genesis 26: 5 because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
So then is Paul right about what he says about righteousness?
13 The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that they should inherit the world, did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
Isn’t Romans 4:13 in direct opposition to what God says directly to Isaac?
2 The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring[a] all nations on earth will be blessed,[b] 5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.”
Is this a startling contradiction in what Paul teaches and what God says?
I would imagine a solution to this is to find in the 600k words of the Old Testament a few more verses of how “Believing God” or “Having faith in God” pleases God. But the problem is, you can not. All you find in the Old Testament is a God who wants people to do good, abandon evil, love mercy, walk humbly with God. And if you do happen off this path of righteousness…. confess your sins to God and get back on that path.
So is Paul’s ultimate goal for you to believe God? I believe the answer is no.
I think Paul and the other apostles are simply pushing this gospel of faith/grace and living off of it financially.
1 Cor 9 11-12
11 If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? 12 If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more?
Who benefits from you believing Paul’s claims? Paul does.
Paul cherry picks to convince you that preachers of the law calling his gospel foolish are wrong.
Paul cherry picks to convince you that no one is righteous.
Paul cherry picks to convince you that Abraham was rewarded for “believing” God therefore you should believe Paul.
Do you think Paul mischaracterizes the over all message old testament time and time again?
How can God reward Abraham for believing if he had already promised Abraham before Abraham believed God and his promise?
Roger Mills
Article URL : https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/definition/righteous.htm