The Righteous and the Good

Romans 5:7, “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die” Although these are beautiful words, I’m not sure if we always completely grasp their meaning. To us, as non-Jews, these two words “righteous” and “good” seem almost as synonyms. What did the apostle mean by making an obvious distinction between the two? A better question: what did the Jews at Rome understand verse 7 to mean? A few thoughts…

The Jewish people made a distinction between “righteous men” and “good men”. A section from the Talmud reads, “…there is a righteous man that is good, and there is a righteous man that is not good…” Obviously Paul was playing off of this idea of the difference between the two seemingly similar genres of persons. He is also obviously trying to teach us a greater lesson than we may grasp about the love of Christ-one that I believe would be beneficial to us all. Another section from the Talmud reads: “three things are said concerning the paring of the nails: ‘a righteous man’ buries them, ‘a good man’ burns them, ‘a wicked man’ casts them away.” What does this quote mean? A righteous man did just what the law obliged him to do: bury the nails. He followed the law to the letter and no more. Sound familiar? These are the Pharisees. Paul says that scarcely would one die for these people! He may even be alluding to his former life when he was more zealous than his fathers were (Gal. 1:14). The good man, however, went a step further: he burned the nails. This is a very generous man! He gives to the poor out of his own pocket! He helps out with the temple of his own expense! There are some, Paul says, that would die for this man to live. But, we must ask ourselves, who dies for those who cast the nails away? Who would die for the hated of the world, the outcasts? No one. Paul doesn’t even mention them as possible candidates in this verse! We need to realize the beautiful gradation that exists in Romans 5:7! Some will die for those who are law keepers AND generous before they die for one who merely keeps the law, and no one will die for those who break the law. Enter Jesus and consequently verse 8: “…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We, brothers and sisters, are the wicked people who cast the nails away. We are the ones who know the law and still mess it up. Yet, even in our sins, Christ died for us. Not because we are good people and not even because we are righteous people, but- why Paul? Because, verse 5 tells us, He loves us. May we, as children of God, never think more highly of ourselves than we ought, and may we never forget the sacrifice that was made on Calvary for our sins.