6. Let us Understand our Nature

Ananda: Although we are basically good, it is in our nature to do mistakes or sins.  As long as we are upset about our sins, and make an attempt to learn from our experiences, God does not get upset about us. God is upset about the people who keep themselves righteous by not making any attempt to grow. I believe this is what you mean.

John: Jesus gave a name to that kind of righteousness-- self-righteousness. "You will not enter the Kingdom of heaven unless you surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees," Jesus used to say. Jesus had a name for the true righteousness--  God's righteousness. "Seek ye first God's Kingdom and his righteousness," he used to say.    

There is a favorite story of Jesus, of two men praying-- a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee looked up at the heaven, proudly counted his good deeds, and thanked God for his not being a sinner. But the tax collector cried to God to be merciful to him and forgive his sins. The Pharisee tried his best to keep himself righteous by all the means known to him. But he couldn’t be truly righteous because of his misunderstanding of God and of his own nature. He was self-righteous. The tax collector, though, was honest to admit his mistakes, and was upset about it. And it made him truly righteous in God’s sight.

These two men gave two different meanings to the word sinner. To the Pharisee, some people in the world are sinners, and the others are righteous. He thinks that he himself belongs to the latter group, whereas the tax-collector belongs to the group of sinners. However, to the tax-collector, all the people in the world are sinners.  

Jesus placed all human beings on one side, and compared them with God, who alone is good. Classifying all humans as sinners before God is not a degrading term for Jesus. It is a word that shows the need and potential for growth. Although we are sinners, we are God’s children, and God loves us unconditionally. When we grow enough to know the love of God, we will begin to love God, and also we will love our fellow beings as God loves us.

According to Jesus, people do sins because it is human to err. We will err until we become as perfect as the heavenly father. Unlike the beings like plants, insects, birds, fish, and angels, human beings have the freedom to sin. This freedom is a privilege of human beings that enable them to grow and evolve further as much as they choose. They can also misuse this freedom and choose not to grow. This freedom is what makes us God’s children. Without freedom, we would only be slaves, not children.

According to the Pharisee, our job is to change the mind of God toward us by doing deeds that are pleasing to God. However, the tax-collector doesn't see such a need to change the mind of God. He comes to God with a changed mind. He believes that in spite of us being sinners, God loves us and cares for us. The tax-collector repents, but the Pharisee tries to make God repent.

When Jesus told the story of the Pharisee and tax-collector, he was really classifying people into two groups: the Pharisee-like people and the tax-collector-like people. The Pharisee also thought there were two kinds of people: the righteous and the sinners. So how is Jesus’ classification different from the Pharisee’s? Jesus and the Pharisee used two different criteria to classify people. Jesus believed that God loves all people alike unconditionally. However, people like the Pharisee do not realize this, and so they cannot love God. The Pharisee believed that God's love to human beings is conditional upon their deeds. If people do good, God loves them, but if they don't do good deeds, God doesn't love them. In short,

the two kinds of people according to Jesus are:

1. those who love God, and

2. those who do not;

 the two kinds of people according to the Pharisee are:

1. those whom God loves, and

2. those whom God doesn't love.  

God alone is truly righteous, and all human beings are unrighteous. We have two options before us-- to honestly admit this or to deny this. If we deny this and claim to be righteous, we are self-righteous, and we remain unrighteous in God’s sight. But if we honestly admit this, we won’t be reckoned as unrighteous by God.

We may also consider the story of what happened in the Garden of Eden in connection with this. God planted a garden at a place called Eden, and appointed a couple to take care of it. They had the freedom to stay there and they could eat the fruits from any trees except one.  But listening to the tempting words of a snake, they ate those fruit. The next time they met God, the landlord, they were questioned about what happened. They admitted they ate those fruit, but they were not willing to take responsibility for their action. The man put the blame on the woman, and the woman put the blame on the snake.  They had the option to apologize for their mistake, but they don’t do so. The man blames the woman, and also blames God for placing her there. Thus instead of admitting he was wrong, he claims that God was wrong. The man means to say like this: God, I am right, but you are wrong. This is self-righteousness. Instead, he should have said like this: God I am wrong, but you are right. This is God’s righteousness.  

In our daily prayer, we praise God holy, which means that God alone is holy, without doing anything wrong. In effect, we are admitting like this: God, you alone are holy; we are sinners. It is followed by the prayer, Have mercy on us. This is the same prayer the tax collector prays. We admit that God is right and we are wrong.

When we get transformed from self-righteousness to God’s righteousness, we will be filled with the spirit of God, with the result that we will have the perspective of God, and we will have the thoughts and feelings of God. Jesus taught us that it is possible for all people to develop a perspective similar to that of God. We should be able to look at the world through the eyes of God, and have the thoughts and feelings of God. Then, we will be surprised to see that the world gets transformed into heaven before our eyes.  Thus, by being one with God, we will attain freedom, and become the citizens of the Kingdom of God. Then, we will be able to lead a meaningful life of joy, peace and love. I have a favorite name for such meaningful life, which is eternal life. 

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