From Father, Through Son, By Holy Spirit
Does everyone in the world want to be truly righteous? Or at least appear to be so? I think so. We see this in people in the news, in business, sport, entertainment .. everywhere. People want to be seen to be doing "right". There is a new thing: "virtue signaling", where people draw attention to the trendy thing that they are doing; that thing which makes them seem attractive and "valuable".
Testimony abounds that true righteousness is very hard to achieve. David from the Bible is still a big hero of God's people, even though he was a man after God's own heart he is famous for the rotten things he did. Likewise with everyone in the Bible except Jesus. I am a fan of Queen Elizabeth, JFK, Edmund Hillary (first to climb Mt Everest), Paul Newman and many others. None of them were fully righteous in themselves, living their life on this earth.
Is it now harder to appear righteous? Does our being "jars of clay" (2 Corinthians 4:7) show up more clearly because of our powerful technologies?
If it is so hard for us to be righteous, how is that our Bible tells us to wear righteousness as a breastplate (Ephesians 6:18)? Clearly this impossible-to-acquire quality is to be part of our armour in the battles of life! (U.S. - "armor").
"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).
There is suddenly much more talk about "this present darkness". We can see why God's Word advises us to protect ourselves, to wear the armour He has provided, strong armour from head to toe (Ephesians 6:10-20).
"Put On The Breastplate Of Righteousness"
The breastplate is the second piece of armour listed (Ephesians 6:14). It will protect our upper body and all our vital organs. Our breastplate is made of righteousness. The very quality which is beyond our own ability to obtain is to be the essential protection for our heart?
Is there a secret here? A special way that we can gain righteousness and stay involved in life and in Jesus' work on the Earth (Mark 1:17; John 14:12)?
Yes! Ephesians 1:9-10 and 13-14 tell us about the ".. mystery of [God's] will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth .. you also were included in Christ when you heard the gospel of your salvation .. and are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit .."
"Jesus .. said, 'With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God'" (Mark 10:27).
"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God" (2 Corinthians 1:20).
Jesus
Jesus' righteousness is fundamental to the wellbeing of the entire Universe, and it flows to us, each one, when we believe. Faith comes from belief (Hebrews 11:1). Belief brings us to faith in Jesus as Saviour, then to repentance and belief in Jesus as Lord. Our worldview is completely re-shaped by these beliefs, by this new-found faith. We are "born again" (1 Peter 1:3) and brought into God's family (Ephesians 1:5), as "a child of God", just as Jesus is (Romans 8:15)!
Christians recognise that Jesus' work on the cross and in His resurrection is a complete work. Jesus said "It is finished" (John 19:30). We can stand on His work and live free, as He intended (Galatians 5:1), free from the burdens of our sin, rebellion, our wrong-doing, our foolishness. Because of the promise of eternal life in Heaven with Jesus and our Father God we are also freed from the ever-so-human fear of death. Free!
Clothed
As we join with Jesus we are covered by Him: "for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ" (Galatians 3:27). And this covering becomes our armour, He will protect us from head to toe and also equip us with His sword, the Word of God!
So can we be seen as righteous? Yes, but
only through Jesus. God has heaped the cost all our sin onto Jesus who paid the
full price that we were due to pay:
• God will "forgive our
iniquities" (Hebrews 8:12) when we confess and repent.
• He has "cancelled the charge
of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has
taken it away, nailing it to the cross" (Colossians 2:14).
• In
God's love He has "kept me from the
pit of destruction", He has put all my sins "behind His back" (Isaiah 38:17; Colossians 2:14).
• "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our
transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12).
• He
"washes away our guilt" and
"cleanses us from our sin"
(Psalm 51:2; Isaiah 1:18; 1 John 1:9).
• He
"remembers our sins no more"
(Isaiah 43:25; Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:12, 10:16-17).
"My sin — oh, the bliss of this glorious
thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no
more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my
soul".
(Song - "It Is Well With My Soul"
- Horatio Spafford - 1873).
Long ago Matthew Henry taught about The Lord's Prayer: "We are taught to hate and dread sin while we hope for mercy, to distrust ourselves, to rely on the providence and grace of God to keep us from it, to be prepared to resist the tempter, and not to become tempters of others. Here is a promise, If you forgive, your heavenly Father will also forgive. We must forgive, as we hope to be forgiven. Those who desire to find mercy with God, must show mercy to their brethren. Christ came into the world as the great Peace-maker, not only to reconcile us to God, but one to another".
As much as we treasure God's forgiveness towards us, and we can have no righteousness without it, it is good to remember what The Lord's Prayer tells us; indeed it seems entirely conditional (Matthew 6:12). As we grow in forgiving others I believe that our compassion grows; (people who think little else of Jesus remember that He always had great compassion (Mark 6:34)); we become more Christlike (Ephesians 4:12-13).
This enables us to know a freedom found nowhere else; "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1).
Strange And Delightful
Many strange and delightful things happen to us Christians, things which we, on our own, could never accomplish. This is the spiritual world at work; the events are supernatural (beyond the natural and beyond what science can explain). This is all included in God's plan for the Universe, He wants humankind to be a part of His glory (1 Corinthians 2:7, Ephesians 1:14).
Our salvation is more than simply the forgiveness of our sins, we are brought into God's family (Galatians 6:10) and assured of life with Him for eternity (John 10:28). We become a "new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17), our "heart of stone" is replaced with a "new soft heart" (Ezekiel 36:26) and our potential for compassion grows (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
When the world looks at Christians they expect us to display righteousness; they fully expect us to be transparent, honest, loving and compassionate .. clean. They expect to see Jesus in us. Praise His name, He is the one who equips us and grows us to be like Himself (Ephesians 4:12). Jesus gives each one of us His righteousness. He is the only one who can do this, and His is the only righteousness which is sufficient. This is what people see (John 7:38; Colossians 1:27).
Colin Meadows found this. There was something different about some fellow students at university; like them he encountered Jesus, became Christian, "as the central focus of my life", and, as a pastor, has blessed thousands for decades.
"These students I called religious; they had a different focus and purpose in life, compared to myself. I was attracted by their lifestyles and their views on many things, coupled with their genuine compassion for others. They explained to me that they were not religious but rather they were Christians. When I said that was the same thing, they had a different perspective. I began, in discussions with this group and others, to hear about a spiritual journey that was centred around a person called Jesus, and my interest was piqued. Over perhaps a year or maybe longer, I too moved into a faith relationship with Jesus Christ as the central focus of my life. I have been so blessed as I reflect now over the years of the impact of this journey, and am so glad I took this pathway". (Colin Meadows, "Lessons From The Middle East", p9-10, 2020).
It is one thing to simply read these very encouraging ideas, but quite another to appropriate them, to accept them into our heart, to know them on our inside so that the truths become foundational in our worldview and our life. It takes focus and work.
"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14).
Breastplate Of Righteousness
Our breastplate of righteousness is Jesus; it is Jesus who gives us our righteousness and it is Jesus who protects our heart. No wonder then that we love Him so. Not only are we dependent on Him but we can rely on His meeting us where we are, and then giving to us in ways quite beyond our deserving.
Our imputed righteousness lifts us up from
being anxious, depressed or broken hearted:
• We
are encouraged and not disheartened.
• We
are no longer weighed down from past pains.
•
Bitterness, anger, mistakes, foolishness can all take their proper
place in our past. Jesus has our past and gives us a future of bright hope
(Jeremiah 29:11) and of life (John 10:10).
Remember, When God looks down from Heaven He sees you, His child, His beloved son or daughter. He sees you clean, righteous, radiant: "so that you may become blameless and pure, 'children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation'. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky" (Philippians 2:15).
Thank you Jesus.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matthew 5:6).
Favourite Scriptures
"This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe .." (Romans 3:22)
"God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory. It's that simple. That is the substance of our Message" (Colossians 1:27 Message).
"For if we have been united with [Jesus] in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God" (Romans 6:5-10).
Amen.
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Blessings.
