Dear Friends:

Reading through Ecclesiastes is like rummaging through the attic of an old home. You never know what treasures might be there. There is a lot of stuff worth pondering in chapter 7 alone like this observation of Solomon —

In my vain life I have seen everything; there are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evildoing. Do not be too righteous, and do not act too wise; why should you destroy yourself? Do not be too wicked, and do not be a fool; why should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of the one, without letting go of the other; for the one who fears God shall succeed with both (Ecc 7:15-18).

“Only the good die young” is a saying taken from these musings of Solomon and repeated over the centuries like it is a gospel truth, but it is not.

It is pretty shocking when a teetotaling, non-smoking, exercising vegan dies of lung cancer at age 30 and a hard-drinking, three-pack a day, couch potato lives to be 100. What about the “nose-to-the-grindstone” straight “A” student who is killed coming home from church by a drunk driver while a lazy, dissolute lout comes through trouble time and again like a cat with nine lives?

Life does take its twists and turns. It isn’t fair and we demand to know, “Why?”

In the silence that follows, we turn to ourselves for the answer.

We work hard to establish our lives beyond the reach of trouble like the ancients who attempted to build a tower to heaven to control their destiny  (Gen 11:1-9). We acquire knowledge and try to figure out all the angles to preserve ourselves with wisdom and virtue.

Our proud illusions are shattered the minute we think we have it all figured out and under control, but anger gets the best of us staining us with a soul-polluting rage, the doctor calls with our test results, our income won’t meet the increase in the rent or mortgage, the person we want most to love us irrevocably tells us that they don’t love us and won’t return to us, or the police come to the door with word about our missing child.

A sterling track record of performance has no currency in such a moment. If our wisdom and virtue (read “self-righteousness”) is all we have going for us then salvation has no meaning for us.

There is always going to be a gap between God’s standard and our perfection. As the Psalmist says, “I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commandment is exceedingly broad” (Ps 119:96). Solomon notes, “Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning” (Ecc 7:20).

“What’s the use then?” we are tempted to say. “If we cannot control the consequences, why not do whatever we want to do with no thought of the consequences?”

Eternal life is the ultimate consequence that God intends for us. Going it alone without God the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of life means that we will die before our time and that’s any time short of eternal life. That’s the problem with doing what we want to do with no regard for God’s will for our lives.

Solomon is warning us against the deadly delusion of legalism by telling us that our righteousness is no guarantee of life. “The letter [of the law] kills, but the Spirit gives life,” the Apostle Paul says. Jesus puts it in even more stark terms, “You can do the right thing for the wrong reasons and end up in darkness for eternity, because you didn’t know me intimately or what I wanted for you in love” (Mt 7:21-23, my paraphrase).

The only reason for being good is to honor the God who loves us and alone can save us. “Virtue may be its own reward,” but any other motivation for our obedience is selling God short and deluding ourselves.

Solomon is also warning us against immorality. The truth that our morality won’t save us does not excuse our immorality. To choose to be less than God created us to be and to exploit others in the process is just as narrow a perspective as is the most zealous legalism. Either course of conduct, whether good or evil, that we pursue for ourselves is performance-based and only showcases our weakness without God (Gen 2:17).

Those who are focused on maintaining their morality and those who relish sin are both occupied with sin. It’s like prison guards and prisoners obsessed with the same walls and steel bars. The prisoners are captivated by their crimes. The guards are captivated by their duty. Sinning and sin management are equally exhausting and soul-sickening (Rom 7). The net earnings from investing our lives in sin is always death, whether that investment is in sinning or sin-prevention (Rom 6:23).

There is an alternative — A Savior who bears the name “Jesus” because “he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). Jesus is the direction that Solomon is pointing when he says, “Do not be too righteous” and “Do not be too wicked for the one who fears God will succeed with both.”

Solomon is telling sinners and legalists alike to let go of their obsessions with good and evil and start looking to God with reverent adoration for the only One who can deal with our sin problem. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, dealt with our sin once for all on the cross and lives to give us access to our eternal home with God (Ecc 7:18; Heb 10:1-23).

No matter how we slice and dice it, the Gospel always comes down to our sticking with Jesus and not wandering off on our own adventures or misadventures “For ‘In him we live and move and have our being.'” (Acts 17:28). We are called to be worshipers, not extremists of any ilk.

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him” (Ps 34:8).

Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

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Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.

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Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.

Finding God’s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent’s passions. He has written two books, Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places published by Review & Herald in 2002 and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God’s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, “A Word of Grace for Your Monday” that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.