Q: In Matthew 25:46, Jesus refers to a group of people as the righteous. But dont other passages -- Isaiah 41:26, Isaiah 64:6, and Romans 3:10 -- say that there are no righteous human beings?
A: Yes, but different connotations are operating among these passages. Sometimes the term righteous is used in a comparative or relative sense, and this is the sense in which some individuals can be called righteous (such as Noah, in Genesis 7:1, or Zechariah and Elizabeth in Luke 1:6). Sometimes the term The Righteous is used as a collective term for Gods anointed community or individual members thereof (as opposed to The Wicked) -- James 5:6 and 5:16 are examples of this sort of usage, and that is probably the sense in which the righteous was understood by Jesus audience when He delivered the parable of the Sheep and the Goats here in Matthew 25.
Meanwhile, Isaiahs definition of righteousness involves complete conformity to Gods will. Anyone who had failed to do what God wanted him to do was not righteous, by Gods perfect standard. No morally aware human being has ever perfectly retained that kind of righteousness, with the exception of Jesus Christ. Its this point that Paul is making in Romans 3 as he quotes Psalm 14:3 (There is none righteous, no not one); he proceeds to elaborate on yet another sense of the term: judicially acquired righteousness, in which God righteousifies, so to speak, the person who believes the good news and claims Christs payment for all his sins.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
A: Yes, but different connotations are operating among these passages. Sometimes the term righteous is used in a comparative or relative sense, and this is the sense in which some individuals can be called righteous (such as Noah, in Genesis 7:1, or Zechariah and Elizabeth in Luke 1:6). Sometimes the term The Righteous is used as a collective term for Gods anointed community or individual members thereof (as opposed to The Wicked) -- James 5:6 and 5:16 are examples of this sort of usage, and that is probably the sense in which the righteous was understood by Jesus audience when He delivered the parable of the Sheep and the Goats here in Matthew 25.
Meanwhile, Isaiahs definition of righteousness involves complete conformity to Gods will. Anyone who had failed to do what God wanted him to do was not righteous, by Gods perfect standard. No morally aware human being has ever perfectly retained that kind of righteousness, with the exception of Jesus Christ. Its this point that Paul is making in Romans 3 as he quotes Psalm 14:3 (There is none righteous, no not one); he proceeds to elaborate on yet another sense of the term: judicially acquired righteousness, in which God righteousifies, so to speak, the person who believes the good news and claims Christs payment for all his sins.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
