One perversion of righteous judgment that troubles me is the Evangelical viewpoint that those who never heard the Gospel will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire because they did not "accept Christ." This is a case of religious zeal totally wiping out sound judgment and common sense. Some have gone so far as to say babies will be thrown into the Lake of Fire if they die before they have had an opportunity to "accept Christ."

There is no use belaboring this point further. Most of us probably know about works of religious zeal that are contrary to righteous behavior.

So when the Bible says all our righteousness is as filthy rags it means the kinds of religious activity I have mentioned here. The Lord Jesus said the same thing when He mentioned the custom of having a young man claim he could no longer help his mother and father because his life was consecrated to God.

"Blind leaders of the blind," the Lord said, referring to the self-righteous.

God esteems genuine righteous behavior no matter where it is found. God is not as interested in doctrine as we are. But He is mightily interested in behavior—more than we are sometimes!

But what about the Bible statement "there is none righteous, no not one"?

In the final sense, all people were born in sin and have sinned at one time or another. No doubt Noah, Daniel, and Job, three men highly regarded by the Lord, committed many sins in their lifetimes.

God regarded these three men as righteous. Yet in the final sense they, as is true of the rest of us, were sinners. God therefore has regarded all as being sinful that He might make the perfect atonement through the Lord Jesus Christ. From the time the sacrifice was made on Calvary no human being can conclude that God has saved him or her because of his own righteousness. All must come to God through the blood of the Lamb or they will not be accepted into the Kingdom of God.

So much for the first and second kinds of righteousness—religious self-righteousness, and the acts of decency and selflessness of ordinary people, the righteousness of the upright adamic nature. There are many unsaved people who are models of honor and integrity. Have you known any such individuals? I have met a few.

Imputed righteousness and actual righteousness are acceptable to God. Self-righteousness is not acceptable.

The third kind of righteousness, that which is ascribed to us when we turn from the Law of Moses, or from our own moral code, and place our faith in the atonement made by Jesus Christ, is so well known to Evangelicals it is unnecessary for me to pursue it.

It is the fourth and fifth kinds of actual righteousness of personality and behavior that are unknown to many of us. I would like to comment briefly on these. The fourth kind of actual righteousness of personality and behavior is a joint venture of our adamic nature and the Spirit of God.

To be continued.