Right Righteousness Comes from Jesus
Ezra 10:44 … “All these had married foreign women, and they sent them away with their children.”
Romans 9:30-31; 10:1-4 … “What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith, but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law … Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”
This chapter in Ezra has always troubled me. Believing men who had taken foreign wives for themselves (which was against the law of God at that time), now kick them and their children out of their home, cutting off their shelter and source of provision, for fear of being unrighteous before God. How is it more Christian to put away their now-defiled wives, who will be faced with the problem of finding another husband to provide for them and their children, than to keep their commitment to the law? What then, is the law for if not to protect and care for others? Is it not the word of God, and is not God love? Thankfully, Jesus came to correct the way we treat one another by teaching us his way.
Romans 9-10 enlightens us. Jesus clarified that it is righteousness through faith that we are to pursue and not righteousness through the letter of the law. For example, though God told us to set aside a sabbath day each week to rest and honor him, it was not uncommon for Jesus himself to defy their understanding of that law.
Over and over again, Jesus clashed with the Pharisees, when they insisted that healing the sick was to be forbidden on the sabbath. In ignoring this law, Jesus revealed the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. His interest was in caring for the wellbeing of his people over caring for his own righteousness in abiding by the letter of the law.
We must not be ignorant of the difference between our own righteousness and the righteousness that comes from God. Jesus made it clear that he himself is our righteousness and that our main priority as his followers, is to love others and care for the weak and marginalized among us as he so richly demonstrated.
Women and children are still experiencing marginalization today in order that some may be convinced of their righteousness before God, when in fact, God has already considered them righteous on account of Jesus. A prime example of this is that many continue to believe that men are to lead people and not women. They are prioritizing their own righteousness through the perceived letter of the law over the spirit of the law. They are excluding women from assuming roles in churches and institutions that God himself may have planned and gifted them for, forcing women to search for alternate vocations and source of provision. May we become followers of the righteousness of Jesus by faith and the spirit of the law, so as not to render the word as injurious to people today as it was in Ezra’s.
Believers today have the distinct advantage to observe the choices Jesus made. Loving others, particularly the marginalized, and meeting their needs is how we show our love for God. As we address this, we earn increased respect for ourselves as we learn what it is that God meant when he commanded us to love one another.
