Leaving behind fig leaf righteousness

Ever since the beginning of time, men and women have attempted to please or placate God by dealing with sin on their own terms. I met a man years ago who told me that because he gave lots of money to his church and to starving children in Africa that when God greeted him in heaven the Almighty would have a big “thank you” waiting for him. He honestly believed that.

Adam and Eve were no better. After they had sinned, they covered themselves with fig leaves to hide their nakedness and shame. This was the invention of “fig leaf righteousness.” It was a feeble, man-made solution to a problem only their Creator could solve. So the Lord stepped in with a temporary solution in Genesis 3:21: “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins from animals and clothed them.” How’s that for teaching humility? The Creator of the world is now a tailor. And so the first death recorded in Scripture is the death of the animal that covered Adam and Eve’s sin. An innocent party died so the guilty party could live. Sound familiar? It was a sign of things to come at the cross of Calvary.

In Scripture, fig leaves and the fig tree have always symbolized man’s inability to become righteous by his own doing. What we do through our own efforts is never good enough. Jesus had a teaching moment with the disciples in Matthew 21:18: “Seeing a fig tree by the wayside, Jesus went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ And the fig tree withered at once.” The tree showed the promise of fruit but there wasn’t any. It symbolizes the outward appearance of righteousness but no inward reality.

The apostle Paul’s New Testament letter to the Romans puts it rather bluntly: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The New Testament letter to the Hebrews is just as direct: “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

So what is the answer to humanity’s dilemma of obtaining right standing with God and removing sin? It’s certainly not better fig leaves or sacrificing more animals. God’s one and only answer to reconcile sinful man to a holy God is Jesus Christ and the cross of Calvary. This is why Jesus came according to 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in and through Jesus we might become the righteousness of God.” Problem solved. No more fig leaves, no more animals on the altar — only Jesus on the cross.

Because of the cross and our belief in Jesus as Messiah, believers are now justified, made righteous in Christ, blood-washed, beyond condemnation and have peace with God. No fig leaf or animal sacrifice can do that. It’s time for saints and sinners to leave “fig tree righteousness” behind and depend only on the blood of Jesus Christ.

Ken Staley is pastor of Faith Church of Pleasant Grove, which meets at 9:30 a.m., and Harrisville Methodist Church, which meets at 11 a.m. Both are Global Methodist congregations. He can be reached by text at 918-852-9797.