[OBW]

Zeek,

In at least one point in your reply, you ask where it was ai thought you had said what I was talking about.

Everything about my posts are not specific to the person they are responding to. Where I directly quote you and then I am probably speaking directly about what you said for as long as I am talking directly to that point.

But points beget points. And ideas sometimes require more discussion than a three sentence reply. Once the discussion goes farther, we are often prone to speaking of "we" or "you" in generic terms, not meaning "you" specifically, but anyone who might read. If I say "if you thing about [idea] . . ." that is a call for whoever is reading to consider it. It does not mean that something they said is the source of the idea that I am now making.

This is a little like a recent comment I got when I said something about "we" and someone seemed to take exception to being swept into some generic "we."

Now, in that post, you said "Doesn't righteous just mean right? If so you are saying that every time a child tells the truth it is THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. If so then, exhibiting THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD is an ordinary every occurrence. If not, then it is possible to be righteous and it is not HIM. Which is it?"

(Before anyone comments on the section below, read the whole thing. If you chop my post into fortune cookies, you can make all kinds of interesting things out of it. But as a whole, it says something more cohesive. You may or may not agree with it, but it is not a collection of one-liners for scrutiny. If you find the whole to be faulty, then show me where it falls apart. But if you just start at the top and comment on each sentence or two without reference to the rest, you are not commenting on what I actually said. Just to some of the words that joined with others to say much more.)

This, like another post I just read, is a matter of context. In a generic way, "righteousness" can be simplified to "right."

But in the Biblical context, it is really more than that. Righteousness is not just the outcome, but the source from which it arises. It is also an attribute of the one who is said to be righteous. In the realm of attributes, there are many who are, at least for the most part, righteous. There are people in this world (without regard to whether Christian or not) who display outward evidence that they operate in human interactions in a manner that would be characterized as righteous. At least in major ways.

But the other aspect of righteousness when understood in the Biblical sense is the source from which righteousness arises. Is it just an adherence to a code of conduct? Or is it something that is being enhanced, or spurred into action by something other than our own will? Surely, in some aspect what I suggested is to adhere to a code of conduct. I specified that we have been commanded to behave righteously and therefore should seek to do that whether we feel like it or can identify how it is that God is doing it in us and it is not just a matter of obedience to the code we have signed on to.

And we have learned from certain people (Nee and Lee, for starters) that righteousness should come from within, not from without. But where does it say that? Where does it say that we will simply start being righteous if we have the right stuff within us? It actually does not. Instead it says that we are to obey. And obedience is something that Jesus commanded the disciples to teach. Must not be so automatic.

Yet, for those who have "signed on" to salvation through faith, we do have a power within us to do what we might not have been able to do without that power. But nowhere does it say that this power is going to simply make it start happening. We have to actually do it. Whether we feel like it or not. Whether we understand how it is that we have the power to do it or not.

I will confess here and now that I am not fully obedient in all things. But I can also confess that I know that there is something in me that gives me the way to do what I could not do on my own.

Yes, there are still things that I could do before and I will continue to be able to do. That does not deny the power of Christ, or make that righteousness different. The source inside me has been changed. I still do those things, but I do them as a child of God.