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Are We Ever Righteous In The Flesh?

Posted May 10, 2010


Hi N____,

Thank you for your question. You ask if people who are "righteous in the flesh" but do not have understanding are better off than someone with an understanding of God's Truth, but lacking the ability to be righteous in the flesh.

According to Christ, the answer to that question is "to whom much is given much is required."

Luk 12:47  And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
Luk 12:48  But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
Luk 12:49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

Please do not mistake this for an encouragement to continue in sin, but according to Romans seven, it is not you who are sinning, but sin which dwells in your body of sinful flesh and blood and in the members of that sinful body, and you will continue in that sin and abide in God's wrath, until God has burned all of your carnal, lawless and sinful desires out of you. Here is how that is done.

Pro 5:22  His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
Pro 5:23  He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

Jer 2:19  Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I [am] Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years [hath] the famine [been] in the land: and yet [there are] five years, in the which [there shall] neither [be] earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

"You sold me into Egypt... you sold me here... it was NOT you that sent me here, but [it was] God..." What is impossible for the natural man to see is that "dying without instruction... and going astray" are necessary steps to being chastened and scourged and loved by God.

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

So it is by God's own design that we continue in our own sins and we reap the fruit of our ways until we are so miserable that we are changed on the inside.

Mat 23:25  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Mat 23:26  Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Mat 23:27  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead [men's] bones, and of all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

One more thing that must be said is that there really is no such thing as "righteousness in the flesh". That is the very message of the entire book of Job. Job had "done all these things from his youth up, yet he lacked "one thing", and that "one thing" was righteousness of God.

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct [him]? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

The book of Job is an account of God judging Job's self-righteousness and Job's lack of gratitude for His wonderful works in judging that self-righteous spirit. Job actually felt that he was "righteous in the flesh".

Job 27:1  Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
Job 27:2  As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
Job 27:3  All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
Job 27:4  My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
Job 27:5  God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

Here we have the story of a Father who is judging and disciplining a son who He loves, and that son (Job) is declaring to that Father that He, the Father, "has taken away my judgment.... MY righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go."

Such an ungrateful, self-righteous, "righteous in the flesh" attitude must learn the lesson of Romans seven.

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

We are all in need of "more stripes" before we become that servant who 'knew not his Lord's will and does things worthy of few stripes. All things are ours; things present and things to come, all are ours.'

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

I hope this helps you to understand that we were, by God's design, "shapen in iniquity, conceived in sin" and must learn to rejoice in our afflictions which are the result of "sin in our members", of which sins we must confess "it is not I that do it... but God who sent us here", and that it is God who is in the process of "chastening and scourging EVERY son He receives."

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

God's work of "bringing us to our wits' end", is "common to [all] men", but He has promised to see us through all of our trials which He sends us into Egypt, and into the fiery furnace, and into the lion's den, to endure.

Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Your brother in Christ,

Mike