Can you be righteous and sinful at the same time?

by Feb 9, 2012

Lot is called “righteous” in 2 Peter 2:7, but the story of Genesis tells us that he was a sinful man who offered his virgin daughters up to be sexually abused by riotous crowds. So which is it? Was he righteous or sinful?

Our incoming Minister of Discipleship and Training (and Academic Dean for Antioch School Hawaii), Chris Bruno, answers:

We can see in Genesis 19:29 that God’s faithfulness to the Abrahamic covenant was the deciding factor in Lot’s rescue. We know that, according to Genesis 15:6, God justifies, or makes righteous, those who have faith in his promises. So then, we can infer Lot’s righteous status from Genesis. As a consequence of this, we can assume that, just as Abraham’s obedience in the sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22 was a result of his righteous status, Lot’s righteousness should also lead to obedience. Genesis leaves us wondering whether and how this might have happened.

But 2 Peter 2 confirms that Lot was indeed righteous and fills out how this righteous status affected him. He was troubled by the sin he saw around him in Sodom. However, this was not the foundation of his righteousness, but rather the result of it. Both his righteousness and ours, as 2 Peter 1:1 reminds us, is finally and fully predicated on the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

It seems that the only way to affirm both the account in Genesis 19 and the teaching of 2 Peter 2 is to read both in concert. And when we are reading these texts canonically and Christologically, the pieces fit together in such a way that they can only lead to one conclusion: Lot was simultaneously righteous and sinful.

And more often than I’d like to admit, I act like Lot did. I am indeed troubled by the sin I see around me in the world. But far too often, I end up responding to the sin I see around me the same way that Lot did—by sinning myself. My guess is that many Christians share this experience.

But like Lot, I have also been declared righteous. Not because of what I have done, but because of what Christ has done for me. And at the end of days, I will be proclaimed righteous because I have been united to the true Righteous One. No person is proclaimed righteous apart from Christ, but all who are in him are declared righteous along with him. This is how Lot could be righteous even in the midst of his sin. So then, 2 Peter 2:7 is a testament to audaciousness of the gospel—Peter could call a man with so many obvious flaws Righteous Lot because of the promise to Abraham. And if we are in Christ, then God has rescued us as well because he remembers his promise to Abraham.