Pre-Christian Judgementalism – Part 1

There are all sorts of problems that we face in the church due to the confusion over righteousness. One of the problems is that we tend to judge people according to their pre-Christian lifestyle. If we really knew what it was to be taken out of darkness and into the light by faith in Jesus Christ, then we would see the potential of righteousness in other people, no matter how they conduct their lives. The church has been robbed of the amazing power of righteousness by faith in Christ to restore, heal and renew a person’s life and character. Instead, we often only see the kind of righteousness that we saw in the Old Testament, which demands righteousness from the bankrupt, fallen nature of man.

Right-living will never come to people as the result of fiery provocation and intimidation, together with a re-iteration of what constitutes right and wrong behaviour. People need to be taught more about the life-transforming power of the Blood of Christ to completely change a person’s life: the way they think, feel and behave.

The church’s inability to deliver a comprehensive and life-changing message on righteousness has turned Christianity into nothing more than a moral code. This moral code demands a sanctified life from believers without properly empowering them. Such preaching will always seek to control and make demands that a person believes he could or should be able to make. This leaves believers living in a kind of dream-world whereby they try to convince themselves that they have what it takes to please God.

Christians become brainwashed into thinking that Christianity is simply an ideal standard that can never be attained or maintained and yet it is accepted because everyone agrees that its demands ought to be met as much as possible. This means that believers will never be completely righteous, as the Bible says we are, but that we can be as righteous as we possibly can. Even if we are as righteous as we can be in our own effort, it is still never enough to meet God’s requirements.

There are many people, including politically correct politicians, who seek to unify all religions based on common moral values. This approach is seen as being good, noble and unifying – but it will never work because no other religion than Christianity looks to faith in the Blood of Jesus as being the only way to God.

A Contrast of Two States

Have you noticed that there are usually only two antithetical states of being contrasted in the Bible? The Bible contrasts God and devil, light and dark, righteousness and sin, good and evil. The Bible does not even attempt to deal with subtle shades of light and dark. The Bible does not attempt to subdivide states of being into grades – that is just something that mankind tries to do because it cannot attain complete righteousness through its efforts. This approach has become so acceptable, that we do not even give it a second thought, even though it is not in accordance with the Bible. We are not meant to attain complete righteousness by our own effort, which is why Jesus Christ died for us, so that we could accept His righteousness. Righteousness is a state of being just like sin is a state of being.