Right Living is the Result of Right Believing
Right living comes as a result of right believing. When we accept righteousness as a gift by faith, we no longer need to impose rules on ourselves; we no longer have to try to be good according to what we do or don’t do. The brand of righteousness that most people live out of is the righteousness that they had before they came to faith in Christ. They then make an effort of the will to fix-up a few bad habits that they can give the heave-ho without too much effort. They then expect other people to follow suit, in the belief that there are no sins that cannot be averted purely through an effort of the will. With this attitude towards righteousness, the method of instilling righteousness in other people seems to always be the intimidating practice of trying to shame people into not sinning by establishing taboos. Then, when people do go ahead and sin after being told not to, it is taken to be an act of ignorance and disobedience against the pastor. This approach simply does not work.
If church leaders had a proper understanding concerning righteousness, they would see that people cannot stop themselves from sinning without a proper understanding on the subject. Instead of accepting what the Bible says about righteousness by faith, they simply continue as if they are still living according to the Old Testament. The New Testament is a new and better covenant, but it will only work according to your belief. Most people seem to believe that the New Testament just provides a means by which a believers past sins have been forgiven. This is indeed a wonderful promise, but it is still not enough to set people free from their sin.
Thankfully, there is so much more to the Blood of Jesus Christ to him who knows and believes. If church leaders only preach on the subject of forgiveness of past sins, then continue to badger people to conduct their lives in a certain way, the implied meaning is that it is up to believers to impose control over their own lives – what they do and what they don’t do. Again, this continues the idealistic misconception of man possessing a super-willpower that is capable of living a holy life of its own accord.
The Security of a Christian Leader
I believe what is required to empower the church to live victorious lives free from sin and the affliction it brings, is for leaders to emerge from the wreckage of sin-dominated lives. You can tell if a pastor has lived a squeaky-clean pre-Christian life according to his teaching and the demands he places on the congregation.
I have found that many ministers are people who have received a decent upbringing in a Christian family, without any major hiccups. Undoubtedly, such people will have probably done things in their youth that they would feel ashamed of doing now, but on the whole, they are able to live good decent adult lives. It is this experiential righteousness that will give a person the confidence to become a minister.
There seems to be a stigma attached to church leaders having done shameful things in the past. The reason seems to be that the trust people place on a minister is all down to his conduct and lifestyle, both pre and post Christ. It would seem inconceivable to many Christians for an ex-convict to become a pastor of a church (although, it does actually happen).
If a pastor knew the struggles that a person has with addictive sins, he would seek a better means of preaching on the subject of righteousness. As it stands, many pastors remain closed on the subject.
Without proper knowledge on the subject, sin-ruled believers remain ashamed of their past, not because they don’t believe they have been forgiven for past transgressions, but because they fear that they will just keep on making the same mistakes again and again. This leads to a Christian life of endlessly sinning and repenting, never quite having the confident assurance they should have towards God. This way of life can lead to a believer even doubting his own salvation. Clearly, something more is required.
The kind of righteousness by faith that we ought to be seeking to establish is the kind of righteousness that the New Testament so clearly promises. If the Bible says that a believer is made righteous through confession of Christ and acceptance of His righteousness, then we should believe and accept it.
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