Proverbial Hump Day: Proverbs 12:28

The path that leads to righteousness

If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you may already be familiar with Proverbs 12:28. At the very least, you’re familiar with its message.

There is life in the path of righteousness, but another path leads to death.

Of course, this proverb was written hundreds of years before our Lord Jesus Christ was born, but it’s a wonderful allusion to Him.

There may be a temptation to read the first clause of this proverb as “there is a life that leads to righteousness,” as if the way we live can produce righteousness, but that is not the proverb says and certainly not what it means. The English Standard Version of the Bible reads, “In the path of righteousness is life.”

In other words, it is righteousness that leads to life, not the other way around. But where does that righteousness come from?

Not from ourselves.

Rather, it comes to us through faith in Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life.

The Path That Leads to Death

Proverbs 14:12 backs up Proverbs 12:28 by saying

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

That way is any way a man may try to reach God apart from Jesus Christ. In fact, there are thousands—millions of ways—to end in death. When these verses use the singular “a way” and “another path,” they are pointing to that path that men often use where they rely on their own senses. For each individual, that may look differently, but the result is the same.

From Unsplash

This is not a popular message—in our day or in Jesus’. But it is the truth.

Are you trying to get to heaven by your own effort or have you trusted Jesus Christ as the sole provision for eternal life?

Allen Taylor is the author of I Am Not the King.