our righteousness?

Our church is going through 2 Corinthians, and this week we are in chapter 9.  One of the sermon was that as we live generously, our righteousness grows.  This is from verse 10, which says: “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” 

After the sermon, a friend sent me the following text: “I don’t understand this point of view on righteousness. The description in the sermon confused me.

I grew up reformed Baptist, we were taught that “no one does good, not even one” which of course comes from Romans 3. That our righteousness is but rags, and anything resembling righteousness is all just the Grace of God. God’s righteousness given to us.

So then it’s confusing when he’s talking about how generosity then builds up our righteousness.

Does this mean we should be generous for the development of our own righteousness?  Isn’t that the wrong reason?  I thought love was supposed to be the source of our generosity. ” 

My reply: “Yes, the reformed Baptist tradition does seem to emphasize total depravity, and along with it, the complete inability of humans to do anything good. Romans three is a good proof text for that, and I’m sure we can find others.

Then you have verses like 2 Corinthians 9:10.

“He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.”

But note, that the righteousness does not come from us, any more than seeds, or water or, sunshine- which is how we get the grain to make the bread that it mentions, (which by the way is a quote for Isaiah 55, and if you study carefully that passage, it is very interesting to see how Paul is using it).

So, the righteousness comes from God, not from us. At the same time, just as Isaiah 55 says that God provides seed for the sower and bread for the eater, aren’t we the ones that have to sow the seed, and make the bread? But did we really make the bread? We just kinda took the raw materials that God gave us, put them together in a certain way, and ta-da, bread! 🥖 mmm!

So, sometimes theologians and Bible teachers and Bible students … will take certain verses, and build a theology based on those verses. And we come up with doctrines like total depravity, and focus on verses that teach that everything we do is like filthy rags.

But we would do well to study the Bible as a whole. And throughout the Bible we see that God wants to work together with us. To rule and reign over the earth (Gen. 1:27-28). He wants us to take the raw materials He’s given us, and make good things out of them. Really good things. We are created in the image of a creative God. God creates good things, and we are a picture of Him when we also create good things. It’s teamwork.

So, ultimately righteousness is from God. But just like so many good things, God wants to share it with us. And He gives us a myriad of ways to partner with Him to be able to manifest HIS goodness and righteousness in the world. So, yes, our generosity is motivated out of love. But our generosity also result in a harvest of righteousness. It is interesting that Paul uses the word Harvest. It’s a great word picture, because in a Harvest, we know that ultimately God is the one who makes those things grow. But we are the ones who have to cultivate the ground. Just like Genesis chapters one and two!