There is none righteous?

[Scuba]

There is none righteous?

Many people read this in the Bible and say it’s a contradiction.

Why do they say this? Because the Bible says there are those who are righteous.

Genesis 6:9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.

There is no contradiction in the Bible when we truly come to understand God.

The Bible says that God looks at the heart while man looks at the outward.

1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

The heart of a man can be righteous yet do good and evil. In the same way the heart of a man can be unrighteous and do good or evil. The difference is in how the heart is affected by the evil.

The unrighteous will do unrighteous things and have no conviction. They will even approve of others who also do unrighteous things.

Romans 1:32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

The righteous heart will do unrighteous things and be vexed by what he has done. His heart’s desire is to do right but in his flesh he is weak. God sees the desire in his heart to do right and is why God calls him a righteous man.

Let’s take a look at Lot. I’m sure Lot has done some unrighteous things in his life but yet he was called a righteous man. Why? Because he called sin what it is, sin and it bothered him whether it was him doing it or everyone around him.

2 Peter 2:4-9 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

Remember, a righteous man (one who desires godly righteousness in his heart) can fall seven times but his righteous heart will make him get up again. The unrighteous heart will have no conviction or desire to get up again.

Proverbs 24:16 For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity.

Let God change your heart to desire righteousness and He will call you righteous even if you fall into unrighteousness. Getting back up is the fruit of God's saving work in us.

Edited July 28, 2015 by Scuba

[hch]

Other than Daniel, have you found any Scriptural references to "righteous men" while they were still alive?

Noah and Lot were declared to be righteous after they had died.

Proverbs 24:16 was my text Sabbath in my talk at the nursing home. Get up and try again or give up and die.

[pnattmbtc]

Who, then, can be saved? Can there, then, be such a
thing as a righteous person?—Yes, for the Bible often
speaks of them. It speaks of Lot as "that righteous man;" it
says, "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with
him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings" (Isa. 3:10),
thus indicating that there will be righteous persons to
receive the reward; and it plainly declares that there will be
a righteous nation at the last, saying: "In that day shall this
song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city;
salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye
the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth
may enter in." Isa. 26:1, 2. David says, "Thy law is the
truth." Ps. 119:142. It is not only truth, but it is the sum of
all truth; consequently, the nation that keeps the truth will
be a nation that keeps the law of God. Such will be
doers of His will, and they shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven. Matt. 7:21.

The question, then, is, How may the righteousness that is
necessary in order that one may enter that city, be 
Christ And His Righteousness.
obtained? To answer this question is the great work of the
Gospel. (Christ and His Righteousness; Waggoner)

[8thdaypriest]

How about Job? - "a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and turneth away from evil" (Job 1:8 ASV).

[Robert]

We are righteous by faith....