FROM ALAN GILMAN Righteous Potential These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. (Bereshit/Genesis 6:9) The Torah refers to Noah as righteous and blameless. How can that be you may wonder? That Noah wasnt as bad as most - or even all - of his neighbors we can accept, but righteous, blameless? Is that possible? Isnt thats like saying, Nobodys perfect; except Noah! Some traditions are okay with spiritual superheroes. This view of sinners and saints creates two categories of persons. First, theres the general population, so-called normal folk. Were the ones in mind in the saying, Nobodys perfect. Then there are the exceptions - the Special Ones! These saints somehow possess a moral superiority that sets them apart from the rest of us. How they came to be this way, we dont know for sure, but we stare at them with a kind of awe - a little impressed, a bit of jealousy perhaps. We might applaud them for doing the good that we think we could never do even though we think we should. While regarding someone like Noah as a spiritual superhero may make us a fan, he can never be an example. Separating people into saints and sinners in this way creates a chasm we cannot cross. Its almost as if these spiritual superheroes exist in a different dimension - a parallel universe - a different plain we normal ones cannot attain. We observe them and their activities. We may hear their words and at times appreciate what they have to say, but they dont really live in the normal world. Therefore we cannot be expected to be like them. An alternative approach is to reject the Torahs description of Noah. The weird thing about this approach is that it is common among people who most adamantly claim to believe the Bible. Statements such as this that ascribe righteousness to humans get filtered out by a theology that denies that such a thing is valid. Doesnt the New Covenant absolutely state: None is righteous, no, not one (Romans 3:10). None is none, Noah included. Unless none is righteous doesnt include Noah, which takes us back to the saints-and-sinners dichotomy I described, making Noah a superhero and the rest of us morally and spiritually disconnected. Its not as if Torah doesnt teach that we are morally and spiritually disconnected, or that none is righteous is not a legitimate general statement. Doesnt Solomon say in his prayer for there is no one who does not sin (1 Melachim/1 Kings 8:46), Noah included? But then how could Noah be called righteous and blameless? Its not that Noah was a different sort of person in and of himself. His spiritual and moral state was not based on a different kind of human nature, but rather it was derived from God. Note that the passage I quoted at the beginning includes the words, Noah walked with God. Noah lived his life in step with God, which is how the righteous have always lived. Being blameless is not a self-derived moral condition, but a relational one, whereby ones dependence upon God establishes a right relationship with him. Since this is not derived from human nature, but from God, genuine righteousness doesnt depend on us, but upon him. This is why the New Covenant writings state: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). Right relationship with God is not an achievement, reserved only for the spiritually superior (who dont actually exist), but a gift of God available to all of us normal people, if we put our trust in the Messiah.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 18:11:03 +0000