Proverbs 12:28 — Immortality

In the way of righteousness there is life;
    along that path is immortality.

Summary: People have sought the path to immortality for centuries and some have given their lives to find it. Solomon shows us the answer in this verse. 

Thousands of years before Jesus Christ walked on this earth, a man named Job lived a righteous life. Despite his righteousness, God allowed Satan to test Job, and everything Job had was taken from him.

Thrown into the depths of despair, Job continued to cling to his righteousness and his integrity. In his long debate with his three friends, he says,

I know that my redeemer lives,
 And that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
 yet in my flesh I will see God’
I myself will see him
  With my own eyes — I, and not another.
 How my heart yearns within me. (Job 19: 25-27)

At some point, God had shown Job his future. Job is not guessing. He says, “I know…” This is not a question of “maybe” with Job, and it shouldn’t be for us, either.

The way of righteousness Solomon refers to is not the same “righteousness” that Paul mentions in Romans 3:10 where he writes, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Paul is talking about a kind of legal righteousness (or “rightness”) that would earn its owner the “right” to stand before God as an equal. He would not have to bow before God because such a person would have no flaw in them. Only one such person exists, and his name is Jesus.

Instead, Solomon refers to a righteousness that lives in the heart. It is a desire to do right. It is what Micah describes when he tells us what the Lord requires of us. He writes:

“He [God] has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
 And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
 and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Which brings us back to Job’s “redeemer.” If the righteous are flawed, then we cannot stand before God on our own merits, as Paul points out. We need help.

Because we are flawed, because we have so little strength of our own, our redeemer has made it very easy to be redeemed. We simply have to believe that our redeemer lives. Jesus, in his late-night discussion with Nicodemus, explains it this way: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” (John 3: 14-15)

Near the end of Peter’s ministry on earth he wrote, “I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside,” (2 Peter 1: 13-14).

What does this mean?

At the end of his letter, Peter continues: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare” (2 Peter 3: 10). Not only is the “tent of this body” not permanent but the entire world will be destroyed.

Centuries after Job lived, Isaiah is given a message from God. He writes, “See, I [God] will create new heavens and a new earth.” (Isaiah 65:17). John, writing about his vision we know as the Book of Revelation, actually sees the new heaven and earth (Revelation 21:1).

So what is life?

Is our body only a tent, as Peter says, or is our body all that there is? For the unbeliever, the truth will not become apparent until the body has ceased to function. For those of us who believe, the body is only a temporary convenience. It is the eggshell that we live in until we are hatched anew.

Solomon tells us that the way of righteousness is life. More than that, he claims that righteousness leads to immortality! Is this a surprise? Should this shock anybody?

God has demonstrated time and again his power over death. He resurrected his Son, Jesus, from the grave, and Jesus had the power to resurrect Lazarus and others from death. The resurrections reveal the power of God over death, but they also tell us something else: The death of the body is not the death of us.

Application: Ponder the power of immortality and what it means. 

Food for Thought: How is righteousness connected to our current world and our lives as Christians?