INTRODUCTION:
1. Mankind’s Search for Meaning
2. Defining “dikaiosune”
3. High Demand “dikaiosune” Verses in Sermon on the Mount
4. Believers Three Fold Source of Dikaiosune.
5. The Steps in Learning Righteousness
I. MANKIND’S SEARCH FOR MEANING
“The German philosopher and historian Karl Jaspers has spoken of the period between 600 and 300 BCE as an ‘axial age’ in human history, when people in remote and apparently unrelated lands achieved major spiritual and intellectual breakthroughs. This was the time of Confucius and Lao-Tse in China, of Buddha in India, of Zoraster or his major disciples in Iran, of the prophets in Israel, and the philosophers in Greece.” (The Middle East, Bernard Lewis, Pg. 28)
600-300 BCE was an axial period (a period that determines future outcomes) of human development because of the worldwide search for the meaning of life during that period.
625 BC– Zoroaster formulates Zoroastianism, religion of Persia.
Iranian religious reformer and prophet, founder of Zoroastrianism and Parsiism. Zoraster or Zarathustra was a priest in his tribal religion, with which he eventually became disillusioned. Having received a vision, he began teaching that Ahura Mazda was the highest god and alone was worthy of worship, a concept that went against the polytheism of Iranian religion. He forbade the orgiastic rites that accompanied animal sacrifice, common in his time, but preserved the ancient cult of fire worship
563-473 BC– Life span of Buddha.
Buddha Gautama taught the “four truths” – (1) existence is suffering; (2) desire, or thirst, is its cause; (3) the cessation of suffering is possible; and (4) the way to accomplish this is to follow the Eightfold Path. Eightfold Path, which offered a middle way between self-indulgence and self-mortification and led to the liberation of nirvana.
551-479 BC– Life span of Master Kung (Confucius).
Scholars consider Lunyu (English – Analects) the most reliable source of the doctrine of Confucius. It covers almost all the basic ethical concepts of Confucianism—for example, ren (benevolence), junzi (the superior man), Tian (Heaven), zhong yong (doctrine of the mean), li (proper conduct), and zheng ming (rectification of names).
Confucius stuck to righteousness, saying, “Improper fortunes are just flowing clouds to me. For proper fortunes, I will do jobs such as a driver.” He was quite easy with his ideas despite his poverty. He was virtuous, always ready to help others and treated others with tolerance and honesty. To him, a benevolent person is one who loves others. He said, “Do not give others what you do not want yourself“, similar to the Bible teaching of “All those things which you would have men do to you, even so do you to them: because this is the law and the prophets.” (Matthew7:12)
700 BC – Amos, Micah, Isaiah “The search for something deeper had become a serious intellectual and spiritual project in the Mediterranean world by the fifth century BC or even earlier. That search was, in fact, worldwide in scope, but nowhere did it achieve a higher result than in the great prophets of Israel, such as Amos, Micah, and Isaiah.” (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, pg. 145.
469-399 BC – Socrates.
429-347 BC – Plato.
384-322 BC – Aristotle.
The human need to know how to live is perennial … That is an unalterable part of the human condition (Dallas Willard).
“Plato wrote The Republic. This book is really a study of the human soul and of the condition in which the soul must be in order for human beings to live well and manage to do what is right. The condition required is called, precisely, dikaiosune {dik-ah-yos-oo’-nay}
in The Republic.” (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, pg. 145)
“A couple of centuries after Plato – certainly beginning sometime prior to 285 BC – the Old Testament began to be translated into Greek, yielding the text we call the Septuagint. The word dikaiosune {dik-ah-yos-oo’-nay} was used to translate the Hebrew terms tsedawkaw and tsehdek, usually rendered in English ‘righteousness.’
The question all these religions and philosophers were seeking to answer was basically, “How shall we then live?”
Amos writes, “But let judgment roll down as water, and diakaiosune as an impossible flood” (Amos 5:24).
Job asks a similar questions to the philosophers / founders of religion as above in 9:2, “….. how can a mortal be righteous (tsadaq) before God?” (Job 9:2).
II. DEFINITION OF DIKAIOSUNE
Tsadaq in Job in the Hebrew means “to be right, suitable.” It is a word similar to the Arabic word for “the straight way” in the first sura of the Koran. Tsadaq is translated as {dik-ah-yos-oo’-nay} in Job and the Septuagint.
“The best translation of dikaiosune {dik-ah-yos-oo’-nay}
would be a paraphrase: Something like, ‘What that is about a person that makes him or her really right or good.’ For short, we might say ‘true inner goodness.” (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, pg. 145).
Vine: In a broad sense: The state of him who is as he ought to be, righteousness, the condition acceptable to God. Integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking, feeling, acting.
To simplify the definition we might say that {dik-ah-yos-oo’-nay}
dikaiosune is “true inner goodness” or “moral excellence.”
.” It is as if Jesus is answering in this one sermon, possibly given over several days, an answer to the question of Zoraster, Confucius, Buddha, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Job, that is “How should we live?” “How can we be righteous before God?”
For I tell you that unless your righteousness (dikaiosune) surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven (5:20).
The Pharisees were stringent and obedient to the law even following 630 specific laws and restrictions for the Sabbath.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier [matters] of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (Matthew 23:23).
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (5:48).
This verse is not challenging us to be perfectly holy in all respects as God is holy. In the context the emphasis is that we are to treat our enemies as perfectly as God treats His enemies.
Other verses challenge us to pristine holiness: Peter tells us to be holy for God is holy; Jesus tells to love God with all our heart, soul and mind which certainly means aim for holiness; Paul tells us to be conformed to the image of Christ which means pristine holiness etc.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (dikaiosune), and all these things will be given to you as well (6:33).
A paraphrase could read: Prioritize submitting to the reign of God while pursuing a life of Christlikeness.
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets (7:12).
This is complete ‘other-centeredness’ and it is very, very difficult, as we all know, to live this way.
SMALL GROUP ACTIVITY: Rate the intensity of “demand” in each of these verses on a scale of 10 to 1, 1 being the most difficult. The verse that is the most demanding would get a rating closest to 1 than the others etc. Get a score for your table on each verse.
FLIP CHART: Add the scores for each table and determine an average. Then graph the average on the flip chart.
SO WHAT?
1. SOM, from the standpoint of personal righteousness is the most demanding sermon in the bible.
2. SOM does answer clearly and plainly how a person ought to be, how we ought to live, what true inner goodness is, how we should live as Christians.
IV. THE BELIEVERS THREE FOLD SOURCE OF DIKAIOSUNE
ACTIVITY: Divide the class into three groups. Send one group to the back wall, another to the left wall and another to the right wall.
You are now in a hospital. Those in the very back of the room are in a maternity ward; those on the right are in the Intensive Care Unit; those on my left are in the Rehab Unit.
QUESTION: What is the main goal of each hospital department or unit?
The maternity – To bring life into the world. A baby is born, a new life begins.
Intensive Care Unit – To preserve and nurture life. A person is usually hooked up to all kinds of machines and tubes that pass life-sustaining fluids and medicines into the body.
Rehabilitation Unit – To enable people to function, to use their bodies, to get around, to live a productive life.
RETURN TO SEATS!
FLIP CHART: Have someone write the verse references on the flip chart as we explain them.
MATERNITY WARD – NEW LIFE / IMPUTED [CREDITED] RIGHTEOUSNESS – THE KEY = FAITH.
…. Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” ….. “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit (John 3:3, 5).
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (II Cor. 5:21).
[Abraham] being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited (imputed) to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness — for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead (Romans 4:21-24).
*** At least the first four of the eight Beatitudes point to the need for imputed / grace-given righteousness / dikaiosune.
INTENSIVE CARE UNIT – INFLOWING RIGHTEOUSNESS – THE KEY = CONSENT
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5).
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23).
*** Intimations of our union with Christ are noted in
Mt. 7:17, “… every good tree bears good fruit.”
REHAB UNIT – LEARNED RIGHTEOUSNESS –
KEY = TRAINING.
Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly (I Tim. 4:7.
Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize (I Corinthians 9:26-27).
*** Training in dikaiosune is clearly emphasized in the Sermon on the Mount: Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock (Mt. 7:24).
APPLICATION: God credits us with His dikaiosone when we are born again; Because of our spiritual and mystical union with Christ, His dikaiosone flows into our life every day as we rest in Him; Daily we actively train ourselves in righteousness.
V. THE STEPS OF CLOTHING OURSELVES IN LEARNED DIKAIOSUNE
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Col. 3:12).
1. Concentration or focus on character quality.
2. Choices when confronted with a situation.
3. Reflection on our choice whether good or bad.
4. Confession to injured party, Lord and/or accountability partner if choice was wrong.
SO WHAT???
1. Mankind has been trying to determine for thousands of years what true inner goodness (dikaiosune) looks like. Everybody, even today, wants to know how to live, what makes a good person.
2. Our Lord explains clearly and forcefully in the Sermon on the Mount what dikaiosune / true inner goodness looks like.
3. The Sermon on the Mount starts by emphasizing the need of God’s imputed / credited dikaiosune, refers to the need for God’s inflowing dikaiosune and closes with a strong command to actively put on practical dikaiosune in our daily lives.
4. If we truly hunger and thirst after dikaiosune (4th Beatitude) this study of the Sermon on the Mount will help satisfy that hunger and thirst!
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for dikaiosune for they will be filled (Mt. 5:6).