Theologian on "righteousness": “Good people don’t (necessarily) go to heaven.” Mark, Chapter 10

… “I haven’t committed a serious crime, so I must be a pretty good person”

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Matthew, Chapter 5

What did Jesus mean by “righteousness”? That dilemma is still being debated today. 

According to the dictionary definition, this is what righteous means,

Definition of righteous

1: acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin

2 a: morally right or justifiable

a righteous decision

b: arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality

righteous indignation

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The question then becomes what is moral, for to hunger and thirst for righteousness, we have to determine what morality really is. 

This leads us to the parables

In order to determine what will get us to heaven, Jesus often told stories that had a theme or special message. Here is one of them,

Most people today think that in order to go to heaven, you have to be a good person. We have an inner instinct that says bad people deserve punishment and good people deserve reward. Like most Americans, we tend to self-evaluate and give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. “I haven’t committed a serious crime, so I must be a pretty good person” is one thing we might think. 

Especially if we have worked hard and have been successful up to this point in life, it’s easy for us to think that we have it all together—that we’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s.

During Jesus’ ministry, a rich young ruler thought this very thing.

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Mark 10:17–22)

This young ruler approached Jesus confident in his own ability to be righteous before God, confident that he had truly kept all of God’s commandments well enough to merit heaven. Jesus’ response, however, showed him (as it shows us) that he was not able to be righteous by his own efforts. Jesus pinpointed the young ruler’s greatest weakness—his wealth—to show him his sin. If the young ruler were truly able to attain the righteousness required, he would have willingly sold all his possessions and followed Jesus. Instead, he turned away, unable to give up his earthly treasure for heavenly treasure.

Leah Baugh, “Good people don’t go to heaven,” Core Christianity, July 20, 2020

The American Dream vs. God’s word

The question that Ms. Baugh, a theologian, raises is a challenging one particularly in a capitalistic society, and it brings us to an interesting discussion of righteousness. 

What does it mean to be good? Or righteous? Or moral? 

Just simply attending religious services or reading the Bible is not necessarily enough to reach heaven. She makes the case that even good people who have not violated major sins could have problems with this,

We can easily think like this rich young ruler. We might think we are rich in good works, or our material wealth lures us to an unrealistic self-confidence. 

As relatively wealthy Americans, we believe the American dream more than we believe God’s Word. We come before Jesus and boast of how well we are doing, we read our Bibles making mental checklists of all the commandments we’ve kept and vow to keep all the ones we find particularly difficult and we give to charities and good causes. We imagine God to be someone who only cares that we tried hard. If we make enough of an effort, God will let us into heaven with a benevolent smile.

This shows us how deep-rooted sin is. It is impossible for us to use the law for salvation, because it means more than trying hard to be a good person (Matt. 5:27–30). The young ruler thought he could be good enough, but Jesus knew the secret things of his heart and showed him that his attachment to his wealth kept him from letting go of his self-reliance and comfort and following Jesus in full dependence upon him (Matt. 5:20, 22:38–39; 1 Tim. 6:17). As Jesus tells us through Paul elsewhere in his Word, “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10).

Leah Baugh, Core Christianity, July 20, 2020

So, can the wealthy not be righteous?

“Trash theology”

Is our life in the 21st Century different from that experienced by Jesus and his disciples a few millennia ago? Pope Francis has preached against the prosperity gospel that many Protestants follow today. He does not think that it is righteous.

Jeremiah also preached against this, and Mark’s beatitudes show that wealth is something that many should ignore,

Every culture develops false notions of righteousness; in this the world of first-century Judaism is not different from that of 21st-century Christianity. In Jesus’ culture many assumed that wealth, prosperity, happiness and social inclusion were signs that a person’s life was right in the eyes of God. Luke made sure his readers knew that Jesus called this “trash theology.” Poverty, hunger, grief and exclusion are not signs of the absence of God’s love.

By contrast, Luke’s Jesus insists, you rich might have a problem: Where did your money come from? Likewise, you who are satiated and fat: Who grew your food? Who brought it to you and prepared it for you? Did they have enough to eat? You who laugh now, look around you! Do you think God is as entertained as you are by the world you have built? And you whom everyone loves, what has happened to others who have shared similar fame? God does not see with human eyes, so call happy only those who live according to divine instruction.

Michael Simone, “The Beatitudes remind us of our own false 

righteousness,” America, January 25, 2020

Are any of us righteous enough to be saved?

This means that many of us may think that reaching heaven is not possible. If as the author claims, “Good people do not go to heaven,” who can reach that destination?

If we cannot be good enough, how then can anyone be saved? Jesus’ disciples wondered this very question, for they asked Jesus, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus responded, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God” (Mark 10: 26–27). Jesus came to give himself over to human courts and condemnation to die, to free us from sin and so that we might have the very perfection God requires (Matt. 5:17).

Jesus not only takes away our guilt and God’s wrath but also gives us his very own righteousness for us to wear as our own. Because he wants to live in communion with us, he did not leave us to perish in our sin but provided another way for us be made perfect. Furthermore, he gives us heavenly treasure that is far greater than we can imagine—and certainly far greater than anything we could obtain here on earth (Mark 10: 28–31).

Leah Baugh, “Good people don’t go to heaven,” July 20, 2020

Lesson

So, should we be depressed and think that goodness, or righteousness, is impossible? Not really. 

The goal is to not seek worldly goods, but to realize that the righteous will receive those in heaven. This does not answer the question about what morality is, and is another question for another time. 

However, it does show that following the divine law is not simply a matter or living the commandments. The commandments, as we discussed last week, tell us what not to do. 

The Beatitudes tell us how to live our lives. That is the message of righteousness that we often miss.