MUST CHRISTIANS BE RIGHTEOUS?
By
Bernie Koerselman
Table
of Contents
Introduction
2
The
Requirement for Righteousness
As Part Of a Saving Faith
2
Righteousness
Defined
3
Conformed
To His Likeness
4
The
Centrality of Righteousness
4
What Is
Right?
5
Christ’s
Law
6
Satan’s
Efforts to Deceive
7
False Doctrines Causing Wickedness
7
False:
Only Imputed Righteousness
7
False: The
Doctrine of Unconditional Eternal Security
8
Those Who
Deliberately Continue In Sin
8
Those Who
Fall Away
9
The
Requirement of Perseverance
9
The Need to
Obey Jesus
10
Peter Warns
11
An Old
Testament Lesson
12
False:
Antinomianism
13
Warnings
About Not Inheriting the Kingdom of God
14
False:
Actions Don’t Matter
17
Doing What
Is Right
18
Judged
According To Our Deeds
19
The Sheep
and the Goats
19
Obedience
To Jesus’ Commands and Gospel
21
False:
We Can’t Be Righteous
21
False
Gospel: Wrong Jesus
22
False
Concept of Which Law Must Be Obeyed
24
Conclusion
26
Over
the last many months, the Lord’s question has rung in my ears, “When the Son
of Man returns, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). Why
would he ask that question? Surely
the Lord Jesus must be asking the question because there is the possibility, the
likelihood, or even the certainty that he will not find a biblical, saving faith
when he returns.
Jesus described the days
preceding his return:
At
that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each
other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and
deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of
wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but
he who stands firm to the end will be saved.[1] (Matthew
24:10-13).
Jesus prophesied there
would be an increase of wickedness in those days.
We observe the world and see an increase in wickedness.
More worrisome is the increase of wickedness in the church.
George Barna has studied the behavior of those who claim to be
Christians. His research shows that most of them live no differently than
non-Christians. Even worse, on the
specific subject of divorce, Barna found that more Christians divorce than
atheists.
Sexual sin has reached unheard of levels, particularly in the realm of
lust as pornography is easily within the reach of any professing Christian with
an internet connection.
I
have explained many times in other articles that a saving faith is not single
dimensional. It is like a diamond
with many facets. Each facet of a
saving faith has the following characteristic:
The Bible may say that a person who has that facet will not enter the
kingdom of heaven (or have any inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, or will not
be my disciple, or cannot be my disciple) or that only those who have that facet
will enter the kingdom of heaven. Each
facet is a condition of salvation.
Because
we know that salvation is by grace, through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9),
and not through faith plus this facet and plus that facet, we know that all the
facets (conditions of salvation) are part of a saving faith.
Jesus
created the faith-facet of righteousness when he said,
For
I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the
Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the
kingdom of heaven (Matthew
5:20).
The
last phrase of the sentence makes righteousness a facet of a saving faith.
We will not be saved unless our righteousness surpasses that of
the Pharisees. Jesus made
righteousness a condition of salvation.
What
does it mean to be righteous? John
explained: “He who does what is right is righteous,
just as he [Jesus] is righteous” (1 John 3:7).
The opposite of that is the person who does what is not right – he is
unrighteous or wicked. Doing what is not right is sin – wickedness.
Notice that the definition of righteousness includes action – doing
what is right. It does not say
thinking what is right or planning to do what is right, but doing it.
Keep that thought in mind as we’ll be seeing much more of it as we
proceed.
Righteousness
is much like obedience. The
difference seems to be that I can have an obedient mindset.
I can determine to be obedient when faced with choices.
But my righteousness will be determined after I act.
Were my actions righteous or not?
Can
a person do what is sinful and be saved? Many
say, “Yes, of course!” The
Apostle John disagrees. He taught,
“He who does what is sinful is of the devil (1 John 3:8) . . . . This
is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil
are: Anyone who does not do what is right (act righteously) is not a
child of God” (1
John 3:10). Contrary
to popular thinking, John taught that those who are unrighteous – who do what
is sinful (act wickedly) – are of the devil; they are children of the devil.
The
Apostle Paul confirmed that continued sinfulness (sinfulness equals
wickedness) cannot exist in the lives of true believers:
“Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from
wickedness” (2Timothy 2:19).
All true Christians confess the name of the Lord.
That means that all true Christians must turn away from wickedness.
That is really what repentance is – to confess our sin and turn
from it. Unless we repent (another
facet of a saving faith) we can not be saved.
Unless we confess our sin and turn from it, we will not be saved.
How
can that be, you may ask? Are you
saying that if I ever sin I am of the devil?
That could be, but that is not what I am saying, or what I believe the
text is saying. Note the word
“does.” It is a continuing
verb. I think it reasonable to say
we can rephrase John’s statement by saying, “He who continues to do what is
sinful is of the devil.” That is
consistent with what the Apostle John said on another occasion:
“ No one who lives in him keeps on sinning.
No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him” (1
John 3:6). It
is also consistent with an earlier statement:
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is
not in us” (1
John 1:8). We
all know that upon occasion we sin, hopefully infrequently, hopefully
inadvertently.
The
opposite side of that – acting righteously – is to be interpreted the same
way. We can rephrase that with a continuing verb to say:
“Anyone who does not continue to do what is right (act
righteously) is not a child of God.” This
statement requires a consistent Christian walk.
That means an obedient walk. As
John said, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did” (1 John 1:6).
The
prior paragraph is closely tied to another facet of a saving faith – God’s
predestined condition that true believers must be conformed to the likeness of
Jesus (Romans
8:29). God
predestined that only those who are conformed to the likeness of Jesus will be
saved. In his definition of
righteous, John added a phrase, “He who does what is right is righteous, just
as he [Jesus] is righteous” (1 John 3:7).
Jesus is righteous and those who will be saved, who are conformed to his
likeness, will also be righteous. Jesus
is called the Righteous One (Acts 3:14, 7:52, 22:14, 1 John 2:1).
Jesus’ disciples must also be righteous ones.
Let’s
look at how central righteousness is to the kingdom of God. Jesus made righteousness the number one priority:
“Seek
first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will
be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
Yes,
first! Almost everyone knows
the part that says, “Seek first his kingdom,” but how many remember that it
is not only his kingdom to are to seek first, but also his righteousness?
Righteousness
is central to the purposes of Scripture. Paul
told Timothy, “All
Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting
and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly
equipped for every good work” (2
Timothy 3:16-17).
Scripture will teach us how to be righteous.
Scripture will rebuke us for actions that are not righteous.
Scripture will correct our wrong thinking about what is and is not
righteous. Scripture will help us
to train ourselves to be righteous.
Jesus
told the following parable to teach the centrality of righteousness as the
standard by which men are judged at the end of the age:
The
Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom
everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42
They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then
the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
He who has ears, let him hear (Matthew
13:41-43).
Note that there is no
reference here to what a person believed but only whether they did evil or were
righteous. We must understand that a
saving faith gives evidence of itself through righteousness.
A false faith (or no faith) gives evidence of itself (or of the lack of
faith) through evil and wickedness. In
this parable, Jesus made sure we understand that there is only fiery judgment
for those who do evil, but blessings in the kingdom for those who are righteous.
We
find the same message in the first Psalm where God distinguished between the
wicked and the righteous:
Therefore
the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the
assembly of the righteous. For
the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked
will perish (Psalm 1:5-6).
Peter
taught the same: “For
the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to
their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
(1
Peter 3:12).
Yes,
the contrast is clear. The Lord is
against the wicked who will perish and be condemned but the Lord watches
over the way of the righteous, his eyes are on them, and his ears are
attentive to their prayer.
Two
of the Beatitudes – the rules that describe how to live in the Kingdom of God
– concern righteousness:
Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be
filled. . . . Blessed
are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven (Matthew
5:6,10).
The
second Beatitude is a salvation promise, but also involves persecution.
What a reassurance it is for those who are being persecuted, as so many
Christians are throughout the world, to know that when they are persecuted for
righteousness, they have a sure promise that the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
A
saving faith gives birth to righteousness:
By
faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to
save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness
that comes by faith (Hebrews 11:7).
Note
again that Noah did what God told him to do.
He was righteous because he did what was right – he obeyed God and
built the ark, even though there was no evidence whatsoever that an ark would be
needed at the time he built it.
Consider
what Peter said, “He
himself [Jesus] bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin
and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).
Peter equates the reason Jesus took our sins upon himself on the cross
was so we may die to sin and live to righteousness.
That makes righteousness very central to our salvation, doesn’t it?
It also makes it central to the purpose for Jesus’ sacrifice on the
cross.
The
definitions above speak of those who do what is right.
What are those “right” actions that the followers of the Lord Jesus
are to do in order to be righteous? Surely
that is the most important thing to know because if we don’t know what
is right, we can’t do what is right.
One
of the popular sayings these days is “We’re not under law, we’re under
grace!” (Romans
6:14-15). Those
Scriptures can be easily misinterpreted. They
refer to the Old Testament Law. All
the Jews had been raised to follow and obey that law.
However today those scriptures are often interpreted as if to say that
there are no rules (law) for the Christian.
Is
that what Paul thought? No, he
spoke of being under the law of Christ (Galatians
6:2). Paul
told the Corinthians, “I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s
law” (1
Corinthians 9:21).
Paul was under Christ’s law (the same as God’s law), and so must all
those who claim to be Christians.
What
is Christ’s law? Christ’s law
is everything Jesus taught and commanded.
In one of his last commands, Jesus commanded his disciples (and all his
followers in succeeding generations) to make disciples of all nations, to
baptize them, and to teach them to obey all that he [Jesus] commanded
them (Matthew
28:18-20).
Jesus
said that everything he did and said while on earth was what his Father told him
to do and say (John 8:28, 12:49-50, 14:10, 14:24, 14:31).
Thus everything Jesus said and did was the will of God.
We see the connection to another faith facet Jesus taught – the need to
do the will of God – when he said, “Not everyone who says to me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does
the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew
7:21).
Now
we can see the connection. Christians
are under the law of Christ that includes everything Jesus taught and commanded
while on this earth, all of which are also the will of God.
When we are true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we obey his
teachings and commands – we do those things that are right and are
righteous. Those who do not obey
the law of Christ, do not do those things that are right and are
unrighteous – wicked. If we are
righteous, we are children of God. Those
who are unrighteous are children of the devil.
Paul
taught that obedience leads to righteousness:
16
Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves
to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you
obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience,
which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be
to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed
the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You
have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness (Romans
6:16-18).
It
follows naturally that obedience leads to righteousness.
If we obey the teachings and commands of the LordJesus, as we have
been commanded to do by our King and Master,
we are doing right – the definition of righteousness – and we
are doing the will of God.
And
that is what Paul taught, combining a teaching about obedience and
righteousness: “For it is not
those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey
the law who will be declared righteous (Romans
2:13).
Knowing
what you now know about the importance of righteousness, would you expect Satan
to try to find ways to oppose righteousness, infiltrating the church with false
doctrines that teach that being righteous is not necessary or, better still,
that it is not possible, or best of all, that our righteousness comes only
through Jesus – an imputed righteousness – and has nothing to do with our
personal righteousness. And that is
what he has done successfully. As
we have seen, Barna’s surveys show that many professing Christians live just
as wickedly (unrighteously) as those in the world who make no profession of
faith.
The great deceiver is
always trying to deceive those who want to be loyal followers and disciples of
the Lord Jesus. He wants them to
believe the lie that personal righteousness does not affect one’s salvation.
He wants them to follow the ways of iniquity and unrighteousness and
become his followers – children of the devil. And
in far too many cases, that is what has happened.
Within
these passages discussing righteousness, John said, “I am writing these things
to you about those who are trying to lead you astray” (1 John 2:26) and “Dear children, do not let
anyone lead you astray” (1 John 3:7).
Even in the first century of the church there were those deceived by
Satan who sought to lead the believers astray by claiming that personal
righteousness is not a condition of salvation.
We will next examine many false doctrines now firmly established within
the church that lead believers astray from the clear message of Scripture that
the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ must be righteous.
The
deceptions are now within the church and have taken root.
There are those in the church who claim we cannot be righteous,
saying that we sin all the time. Others
in the church claim we shouldn’t even try to be righteous because that
would be attempting to earn our salvation by works.
Those same people often claim we shouldn’t attempt to obey the
teachings and commands of Jesus because that would also be an act of works in
which we are trying to earn our salvation.
The most prevalent false doctrine claims righteousness is not an issue
for those who are saved as all their future sins are forgiven – that happened
(they say) when the person declared his faith and trust in Jesus as his Savior.
We
are not discussing simply academic arguments.
Being righteous is a condition of salvation that must be met by those who
would be saved. Heaven or hell are
in the balance. Let’s examine
some of these false doctrines to see how they square with Scripture.
Some
teach only imputed righteousness – that the perfect righteousness of Jesus is
imputed to those with a saving faith – claiming that is what Jesus spoke about
in Romans 8:29, that God predestined that those he
foreknew would be saved would be conformed to the likeness of Jesus (with
imputed righteousness). According to them, all we have to do is have the proper
faith and we will have the required righteousness imputed to us by God – the
righteousness of Jesus.
They
rely on such scriptures as “For we maintain that a
man is justified by faith apart from observing the law” (Romans
3:28). For
such people, they equate justification with salvation.
In Ephesians 2:8-9, the language is:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can
boast.” Both of those passages
have a similar message – we will not be either justified or saved by our works
or by our efforts in observing the law.
Typical
of false doctrines, part is true. As
we can see from Jesus’ teaching about righteousness, a proper faith includes
exemplary righteousness – a righteousness exceeding that of the Pharisees and
teachers of the law. All true
Christians with a saving faith have the righteousness of Jesus and are blameless
and free from accusation. We see
that expressed in Colossians 1:21: “
Once you were alienated from God and were
enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But
now he [God] has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to
present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” Christians
with a proper understanding of repentance know that whenever we sin, we are to
repent immediately of that sin. When
we repent of our sins and are forgiven by God, we find ourselves holy in his
sight, without blemish and free from accusation.
In every case, our pure and holy state is made possible only by
the shed blood of Jesus. When we are washed in his blood, we are truly clean,
blameless, and free from accusation.
Scripture
calls us to be different – to a lifestyle that is righteous and holy.
But many say that is impossible. As
to such people, the Apostle John warned, “Dear children, do not let anyone
lead you astray. He who does
what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
He who does what is sinful is of the devil” (1
John 3:7). That
seems simple, doesn’t it? We need
only do what is right to be righteous in God’s eyes.
There
is likely no false doctrine that will damn more people to hell than this
doctrine, commonly referred to as “once saved, always saved.”
If you are taught repeatedly that once you have confessed faith in Jesus
you cannot be unsaved, that your sins are forever forgiven, you have lost all
reason to fear God. Why would you
fear God? You have been taught God
is love. You are assured his wrath
will burn only against those who have never confessed faith in Jesus.
Does
that square with Scripture? Let’s
see what Scripture teaches. Since
our primary subject is righteousness, let’s look at what Scripture says
happens to the wicked (the unrighteous). Let’s
pay particular attention to whom the warnings are given.
Is it to the unbelieving world, or are these warnings given to those in
the church – to Christians?
There
are two startling passages in the book of Hebrews.
We’ll examine first the passage that deals with deliberate sin:
If
we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of
the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of
judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony
of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to
be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an
unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted
the Spirit of grace? For we know
him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord
will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into
the hands of the living God (Hebrews
10:26-31).
This
passage deals with those who deliberately continue in sin.
Does the passage say that if we continue in sin we will feel less
comfortable, and that we will miss the abundant life the Lord has for those who
have confessed faith in him? NO!
It doesn’t speak to our emotions, feelings, or an abundant life.
It speaks to judgment – a raging fire that will consume the enemies of
God.
Who
is the passage speaking to? Is it
speaking to unbelievers living in sin? NO!
It speaks to those who have received the knowledge of the truth.
The author includes himself in this warning, saying, “If we . . . “
For those who have received the knowledge of the truth to continue
deliberately in sin is to treat as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant
that sanctified him and to insult the Spirit of grace.
Note that the passage said “received” the knowledge of the truth and
the blood of the covenant that “sanctified” him – both in the past tense.
It says nothing – just the opposite, in fact – about always being
sanctified and justified because of once making a confession of faith.
It warns that the person who has received – not just heard – the
knowledge of the truth will be condemned to the raging fire that will
consume the enemies of God if they continue in deliberate sin.
Shouldn’t that passage cause each of us to fear God?
Let’s
look at another passage that deals with those who leave the faith:
It
is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the
heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who
have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6
if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to
their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him
to public disgrace (Hebrews 6:4-6).
We
are dealing here with those who fall away from the faith.
These are not those in the world who do not profess faith, but just the
opposite. The passage lists what
these people experienced – they were enlightened, they tasted the heavenly
gift, they shared in the Holy Spirit, they tasted the goodness of the word of
God and the powers of the coming age. Do
non-believers share in the Holy Spirit? No!
This describes Christians!
Once
again, this is a grave warning, one dealing with salvation!
People who are described in this paragraph who fall away from the faith
cannot come back to repentance. It
is impossible according to the passage. Why?
Because they are crucifying the Son of God all over again.
What do these people do, who had it all but threw it away? They subject the Lord Jesus to public disgrace, just as the
passage says.
The
Apostle Paul twice defined the need for perseverance in the faith IF one is to
be saved. He warned the
Corinthians:
Now,
brothers, I want to remind you of the Gospel I preached to you, which you
received and on which you have taken your stand.
By this Gospel you are saved, if
you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have
believed in vain (1 Corinthians 15:1-2).
Note how clear and
unambiguous this passage is. Paul
said these people, by receiving and taking their stand on the Gospel he preached
to them, are saved. BUT, then he
qualifies his statement by saying they are saved IF they hold firmly to that
Gospel – if they persevere in their faith.
What if they don’t? They
have believed in VAIN. What could
it mean to believe in vain? It can
only mean that whatever they believed was for naught – it no longer counted.
There would be no salvation.
Was Paul speaking to the
world at large with this admonition? Not
at all. He was speaking to fellow
believers he addressed as brothers. Further,
he told them they had received the Gospel he preached to them and had taken
their stand on it. He even told
them they are (present tense) saved, IF they persevere – hold firmly to that
Gospel. There is no question that
this is a warning to believers that they must persevere in the faith – hold
firmly to the word – if they would be saved.
Paul also warned the
Colossians:
Once
you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil
behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s
physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish
and free from accusation — if you continue in your faith,
established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the Gospel. This
is the Gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature
under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant (Colossians 1:21-23).
We have a parallel
situation here. Paul tells the
Gospel in this passage, beginning with our past condition before coming to a
saving faith – alienated from God and enemies of God because of our evil
behavior. He goes on to remind them
how God reconciled them by Christ’s physical body through death and their
spiritual status as a result – holy in God’s sight, without blemish and free
from accusation. Surely that is the
desire of every Christian! BUT Paul
then qualifies the statement. Those
foregoing statements are only true for those persons who continue in
their faith. How must they
continue? Established and firm, not
moved from the hope held out in the Gospel.
What if you do not continue? You
are no longer reconciled or holy in his sight or without blemish or free from
accusation. Indeed, you are guilty
of great accusation because you did not persevere! Remember the warning of Hebrews 6:4-6!
Still
another letter by Paul clearly shows the need for obedience to the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus as a condition of salvation. Those
who fail or refuse to obey that Gospel will not be saved:
All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be
counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. 6
God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7
and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will
happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his
powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not
know God and do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9
They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the
presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10
on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled
at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed
our testimony to you (2
Thessalonians 1:5-10).
This
awesome passage shows both the need to obey the Gospel of Jesus and the
punishment for failure to obey. Paul
reveals when this punishment will occur (v. 7).
Then he tells who will be punished – those who do not know God and do
not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus (v. 8).
Is this punishment simply not feeling good about themselves or not having
the abundant life or not laying up sufficient treasure in heaven?
NO! Paul says these people
will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of
the Lord and from the majesty of his power (v. 9).
Did Paul write this warning to unbelievers? No! He wrote to
those in Thessalonica who believed Paul’s testimony to them (v. 10).
Those who obeyed the Gospel of the Lord Jesus will be saved.
Hebrews
5:9 confirms the need to obey Jesus and resulting salvation for those who do:
“He (Jesus) became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey
him.” That verse shows salvation for the obedient.
Jesus reversed that statement when he said:
“Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
Everything Jesus said and did was the will of his Father. Is
it any wonder we are to teach new disciples “to obey all that I have commanded
you”? (Matthew
28:20). Let’s
always remember that when we do the will of God our Father we are doing what is
right – we are righteous!
Those
scriptures do not make an exception for those who made a one-time commitment to
Jesus. They refer to anyone and everyone. The wrath of God is stored up for those who do not persevere
in knowing God and obeying our Lord Jesus.
Peter
was also forceful in warning believers so they would not fall away:
If
they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at
the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It
would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness,
than to have known it and then to turn their backs on