Justifying Corrections (part 2)

In the previous entry I talked about all the possible drinks that a coffee shop can make. With all these possible combinations there are bound to be mistakes. Sometimes these mistakes are a result of the barista mishearing or assuming something. Believing in our justification by faith in Christ can free us from trying to justify our mistakes and can help us freely confess them.

Things are more difficult, however, when we know it was the customer who made the mistake. These can also be the most frustrating mistakes. I don’t know how many cappuccino have been returned to be because they weren’t sweet (like the one they got at the gas station last week). cappuccino aren’t supposed to be sweet! They are espresso and foamed milk! If you want a wussy sweet cappuccino, add sugar yourself but I won’t ruin a perfectly good drink!

The same goes for simple coffee. The next person who snaps at me for giving them coffee that is too hot will hear me say, “No SH**! It’s supposed to be hot!” It’s morons like that who sue fast-food restaurants so they have to place “Warning! Contents Hot!” labels on their cups!

How can you not be defensive when someone corrects you even thought THEY are wrong? Sure our justification by faith helps us to confess our sins but what if our “sins” aren’t really sins, but their mistake?

I’ll freely admit that this is the place where my faith in Christ for my justification is most challenged. This is because I place most of my pride in what I know or that I know more than someone else. When they correct me, and I know I am right, they are challenging my most sensitive area and I know I really am right(eous). More often than not I cannot help but defend myself and correct the customer.

Most of the time I do it in a nice way but is there a nice way to tell Jesus, “I am righteous by my own efforts, and I don’t need you!”? That’s what I am saying when I defend myself. I am declaring that my own righteousness is more powerful than Jesus’ and I’d much rather rest in mine than his.

Isn’t this the real problem we all have with justification? We want a righteousness that we own rather than have to receive a handout. This is why we all find areas that seem to be a successful means of righteousness that we can hold on to. It might not be knowledge or intelligence to you, like it is to me but either way we are turning our backs on Christ’s free righteousness we have through faith.

But we can’t just rest on our own righteousness, can we? God won’t let us. He says, in Galatians 3.10 (quoting Deuteronomy 27.26):

All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

We can’t pick our righteousness. If we want to be judged on the basis of our own righteousness, we have to stand by all of it, not just the parts that make us look good. If we want to live by our own righteousness, we will be condemned by our lack of righteousness.

Phrasing it this way makes it more clear, doesn’t it? Perhaps this can free us from defending ourselves, even if we know (or think) we are right.

It doesn’t have to end on that disappointing note, however. By admitting that even or righteousness isn’t good enough we can now embrace the righteousness of Christ which is more than enough. Only that righteousness can satisfy us. Only his righteousness can make us certain of God’s love. Only in Him can we ever quench our insatiable desire to be loved.