I am afraid that algebra is difficult and that I am lazy. My professor can cover a chapter in 20 minutes during class, and then it takes me a full 2 hours at home studying to learn the lesson. It's ok, I only have 5 more lessons to study before Tuesday :)

I am curious about the difference between holiness and righteousness. An acquaintance wrote an email to me expressing his opinion/ position. The more that I study Scripture, the more what he said is confirmed to me as true. Here is some of his response to a questioning email:

In your email, you stated that according to your
understanding of Romans, you are wholly righteousness
apart from your actions.  Because Christ was made sin
for us, we are righteous through Him.  That
righteousness (or holiness), being perfect, cannot
increase or diminish.

As long as you don’t let this become an excuse for
irresponsibility, I have no disagreement.

Your second point was less clear.  You asked about the
essence of Holiness/Righteousness.  As you put it, “Is
holiness not the Complete Total Entire separation
from/ absence of sin?”  Welllll…sort of.  Holiness and
righteousness are two related, but very unique
concepts.

Holiness is separation—not just *from*—but *to*
something.  It means being set apart, not just from
sin, but set apart for a purpose.  In II Cor. 7:1 Paul
exhorts us to “perfect” our holiness.  Later he tells
Timothy that women should “continue” in holiness.  All
of which suggests that holiness is a lifelong process.
Righteousness, on the other hand, is right standing
with God.  And as you correctly state, in God’s eyes a
Christian is just as righteous at the beginning of his
life as at the end.

Christ was perfectly and unchangingly righteous and
holy, yet Scripture describes Him as “growing” in
wisdom and in favor with God.  Saying that He was the
same at the end as at the beginning, while certainly
true of His divinity, is certainly false of His
humanity.

I find it very interesting that Paul “beseeches” us to
present our bodies to God as a holy sacrifice (Romans
12:1).  In the next verse he tells to be transformed
by the renewing of our minds.  Both of these imply
that for Christians, holiness and transformation are
ongoing processes demanding our attention and effort,
and resulting in what I would describe as “growth.”

My point is that while there is true that our
righteousness must come only from Christ, personal
growth is something that we very much have a hand in.
And I should certainly hope that my friends will see a
different (better?) Quinton at the end of my life than
they do right now.  You could describe that process as
conformity to an inward reality, but I find it much
more useful (and less cumbersome) to describe it as
growth, pure and simple.  That’s my take.  If you’ve
got a problem with any of it, let me know.

So what do you all think?  I do not agree 100%, but the explanation
of the difference between righteousness and holiness I found very
useful during Bible study.