Righteousness Through Membership

They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. . . . I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you do what you have heard from your father."

"Abraham is our father," they answered.

"If you were Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then you would do the things Abraham did.” (John 8:33–34 and 37–39)

This passage illustrates the ancient Jews’ habit of claiming righteousness through mere membership. We can leave aside for the moment their apparent forgetfulness about slavery. They had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years, enslaved by other empires since, and were now dominated by the Roman Empire.

But Jesus makes clear in this passage (which includes verses 8:33–41) that being a member of a group, even if it’s “the people of God,” does not guarantee freedom from sin. Indeed, a people can be absolutely deceived: the Devil is actually your father, Jesus tells them. This, we can bet, enraged the Israelites. They had been building up national and ethnic pride for several centuries since their return to the land from Babylon. This pride included a rather new, rigid intolerance against foreigners, beginning to resemble Indian upper castes’ distaste for the lower caste “Untouchables.” The Jews knew they were “the people of God.” That is the opposite of being a slave to sin, isn’t it?

Application time: We can have the same problem, of course. Pride in our nation or our neighborhood. But when Judgment Day comes, I don’t think the Lord’s going to consider these things values of righteousness: the U.S.A., Great Britain, Iraq, or Belleview Estates, etc. Pride in our church can be a similar snare. Doesn’t it count for something that I belong to a church willing to take a difficult stand, a church both traditional and Charismatic? Good things, surely, but mere membership is not a guarantee of freedom from sin.

When I ponder where “righteousness through membership” has temptation for me, I think it has to do with my family. Finally, at the age of 42, I got married. Now I have kids. The temptation is to feel, Now I’m somebody; now I am worthy to “speak in the assembly of men.” Look at these beautiful kids; could God not favor someone he has blessed so richly? But I have to admit that such an attempt at righteousness probably amounts to “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Marriage and kids are far from filthy rags, but my attitude about them could be, if I’m not careful.

Instead, we know from Jesus’ other teachings that righteousness comes from God’s grace. But we have a part too. In John 8 he teaches that freedom from sin comes from doing this: Follow the light of the world (v. 12), believe who Jesus says he is (24). Do what he commands, and thereby be his student. Then we will know the truth, and the truth will set us free (31).

I find it enlightening that Jesus teaches that doing must precede knowing, which is the opposite of what our culture teaches. But that is another meditation for another time.