Righteous or Sinner?
I remember all of those tests I had in school. It was a constant challenge to study and to retain what I studied, so I could do well on the tests. My goal was to make 100 every time. Of course, that meant to get everything right. However, that did not happen all of the time. Many times, I would give wrong answers and my score would be less than a perfect 100. Then, I needed to study more, learn it well, and do better the next time.
When Jesus came into the world, He came to help the people who needed help. He did not concentrate on the rich people who had everything they needed. Neither did He always hang out with those who knew the Lord by faith, and they were doing His will. (Luke 5:32) Jesus told the people that He had not come to call the righteous to repentance, but He had come to call sinners to repentance. There are two sides to this coin, and we need to examine both of them.
None of us are totally righteous by our own efforts. We have all sinned. The only way to become righteous is to have our sins forgiven by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Then, He pronounces us righteous before God. Part of accepting Christ is repenting of our sins. That means we turn away from doing things our way, and we start doing things God's way. We can't be saved without repenting of our sins. However, that is not the end. That is just the beginning
Jesus calls each of us to repent of our sins and to be saved from our sins. All of our sins are forgiven at that point, but we will still commit sins after we are saved. Those sins harm our relationship with Jesus, so we can't hear from the Spirit as we should, and we are not as close to Jesus as we should be. Therefore, Jesus keeps calling us to repentance for those sins. When we listen to the Spirit, confess those sins, and turn away form them, we are fully righteous again. Every day we should live to be fully righteous before God, so Jesus doesn't have to call us to repent. We won't ever be perfect, but we should strive to be as righteous as possible.
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Tomorrow, I intend to read Luke 6-10.