Rev. Dean Rothchild's March Article

God does not need our righteous works, but our neighbors do.

We serve our neighbors through our vocation in life. An obvious example is the farmer who raises the food that feeds the world. That is God-pleasing service to others. Yet, there is also the truck driver who delivers that food to the grocery store. And don’t forget the grocer who sells that food to hungry people. Each person along the way is motivated by a need to earn a living and support life and family, yet each person is also acting within a God-ordained role of service to his and her neighbor as well. Unseen by most people, this is how God sustains His creation. Christians recognize this as God’s First Article of the Apostle’s Creed gifts.

“Righteousness” is holy perfection, and is thought of in two different ways. First, “active righteousness” is what Christians do when they are serving others, such as in fulfilling a God-pleasing vocation. These things are done in service to our neighbor, by Christians, but they are earthbound works. In that way, our vocations are lived out here, on earth, shoulder-to-shoulder with others, on a horizontal plane. “Active righteousness” is not accomplished to earn God’s favor, but in response to God’s grace in Jesus Christ.

Second, there is also “passive righteousness.” This occurs on a vertical, downward plane between God and us. When righteousness is called “passive,” it means exactly that; we do nothing! It is a righteousness that we only receive. It is the perfection of God that He has given to us.

Why is this vertical righteousness passive? Because that’s the only way it can be. It is passive because all people are by nature born spiritually blind, dead, and enemies of God—the opposite of righteous. The dead can do nothing other than rot and decay. We can’t do anything to accomplish our salvation. Righteousness then has to be earned for us and given to us by someone else. This is Christ’s work. As St. Peter explained it, He [Jesus] Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed 1 Peter 2:24.

Christians were born at the crossroads of Active and Passive righteousness. We were passive in our baptism. We received what Jesus had earned for us, namely the forgiveness of all of our sins, without being able to lift a finger. Yet, most of us were brought to the baptismal font in the loving arms of our parents, active in their vocation of Christian parents. In his vocation, the Pastor actively applied the water with God’s Word, God’s righteousness, and we became Christians. Even if you came to faith through the hearing of the Gospel from another Christian, it was the active action of someone proclaiming God’s passive righteousness in Jesus to you that saved you. God always works through the active means of Word and Sacrament which carry His passive righteousness.

Living at these crossroads of righteousness, the Church understands itself as having a vocation to serve others on behalf of Christ Jesus. This service is carried out within horizontal relationships with others. Therefore, Christians actively seek to recognize the relationships they have at home, at work, at school, and in our neighborhoods in which the good news of Christ’s gift of salvation can be proclaimed, knowing that it is God who provides all things, especially the opportunity to talk to others about Christ Jesus.

Want to discuss this some more? Desire to be better equipped to speak about Jesus Christ? One way is to host a Saturday Witness Workshop in your congregation. Contact me and we will find a time when we can do this together.

deanrothchild@lcmside.org
319-373-2112