I had an awful look at my old nature one day. We had houseguests, which meant that I had to give up the conveniences and privacy of my study, which seconds as guest room. The guests had three children ages 3 to 12, who were up at 6 a.m. making a racket. I gasped as the 6-year-old grabbed an expensive Chinese tea set to play house with, and as the 3-year-old spilled juice on the white carpet. One of the guests left the car door unlocked in our carport, and our snorkeling equipment was stolen during the night.

Never a dull moment.

'PRIMEVAL CHAOS!'

Now that might not sound like much to some people, but I'm not the most organized man in the world. I establish and sustain system in my personal life only with great effort. All of a sudden, I found my order disintegrating, falling apart, and I was demoralized. I had been feeling so good about the new start I was making in disciplined living, maybe even a little proud. Perhaps even somewhat self-righteous.

But now I felt distant from God and, yes, a bit resentful. My morning "quiet time" with him was ruined by a mind tied up in knots and unable to be quiet at all. I realized afresh that my own righteousness is such a thin veneer! With great effort, I go about setting up the disciplines of piety that are proper responses to his grace, but after years of working at it, it takes but a few less-than-ideal circumstances to restore the primeval chaos! Isaiah (64:6) put it bluntly: "All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment." It drove me back to the good news in that old hymn: "Jesus, Your blood and righteousness / My beauty are, my glorious dress; / Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, / With joy shall I lift up my head!"

Should I live to be 100, I shall have added nothing to the righteousness credited to me in the perfect life and atoning death of my savior. My right standing with God is pure gift; it is an "alien" righteousness, as Martin Luther called it. Or as Paul put it, "Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from (keeping) the law, but ... the righteousness that comes from God" (Philippians 3:9). Or, as the hymnist puts it: "Dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne."

At the great wedding feast, I shall wear not my own polluted garment, but the special garment presented by the host himself:

"I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, / My soul shall exult in my God; / For he has clothed me in the garments of salvation, / He has covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10).

Don Baron is the retired pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Honolulu and former director of the Bible Institute of Hawai'i. Expressions of Faith is a column that welcomes submissions from pastors, priests, lay workers and other leaders in faith and spirituality. E-mail faith@honoluluadvertiser.com or call 525-8035. Articles submitted to The Advertiser may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.