Am I Righteous?

I am currently preparing for a message on Sunday from the book of Philippians. It has led me to seriously ponder the following question; what does it mean to be righteous. As I have examined and approached this subject, I have come to the following conclusion. Our culture has completely abandoned what the Biblical term righteous implies.

When we use this term we think of what people do. For instance, if we were to ask many red blooded Americans whether or not Muslims are righteous, the response would be staggering. Fact of the matter is; Muslims are devoted. They are serious about what they do. Our culture has redefined righteous to mean one who is zealously devoted.

Amazingly, the Biblical term righteous is not an action. It is a state of being. To be righteous is to have right standing with God. It is to something that is declared upon us. This Sunday night I will be preaching on what righteousness really is. It is to understand our complete inadequacy and to fall humbly before Christ trusting that what he accomplished on Calvary is our salvation. This humiliation of ourselves is the basis for righteousness. Our righteousness is found at the foot of the cross purified in his blood.

I AM AN AUBURN MAN!

I am an Auburn man. I am not ashamed to admit it. I take every opportunity to tell the world that I am an Auburn man. War Eagle! That statement flows from my mouth more frequently than Terrell Owens changes teams. I have Auburn ties, which I wear very frequently, Auburn socks, Auburn pens, Auburn jackets, Auburn polos, and the list goes on and on. Needless to say, living in suburban Atlanta these trinkets definitely make a fashion statement. My associate Jason is a huge Georgia Bulldog fan. I pray for him frequently that God will grant his repentance and bring conversion, but it baffles him how sincere I am in my devotion to the Auburn Tigers. I have an Auburn shrined room in my house. When I get talented enough with this internet stuff, I will post a picture of my Auburn room on the web.

As I reflect upon the preposterous nature of my devotion towards the Auburn Tigers it leads me to a perplexing dilemma. There is no doubt where my allegiance lies. Here is where the proverbial rubber meets the road; I wonder if the world can look at my life and see the same passion towards Christ. My studies have led me to one definitive answer. We don’t hide those things that we care most about. We reveal to the world those things that our hearts are passionate about and our souls long for. The problem with the church today is not music, it’s not style, it’s much deeper and darker than that. The greatest tragedy in the world is to bet eternity on a propositional truth; namely Christ’s atoning work on Calvary and then live the rest of our life as if that truth does not matter or at minimum that it is irrelevant for the events that transpire today. No wonder the world looks at the church as if she is a hypocrite. By definition we are.