The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"But Now…"
"Romans 3:21 tells us this, proclaiming a righteous relationship and standing with God so freely given and maintained by the Lord Jesus that our Father will not see us apart from Christ."
From Romans 1:18 to 3:20, the Apostle Paul paints a progressively dark and bleak portrait of humanity, finally concluding with "all the world… guilty before God" (Romans 3:19). If the Apostle Paul's treatise ended here, all would be without hope and subject to the wrath of God.
Thankfully, Romans 3:21 illuminates hope for all as one of the brightest rays of redeeming light shining forth from Scripture:
"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe."
God offers to those rightly condemned the possibility of being righteously converted. The Light of the world, the Lord Jesus, bursts forth in Romans 3:21, glimmering with redeeming grace to "all them that believe." God imparts the freely given robe of Christ's righteousness to all who receive His grace by faith, accounting us as forgiven, and even more, as forever justified to the degree He "will not impute sin" to the believer (Romans 4:8). He sees us as "in Christ," and thus views His Son and His righteousness when looking upon us before He sees anything else about us (I Corinthians 1:30).
We would have to view such grace as unwise and even scandalous were it not for our awareness of the perfection of God and His doings. "As for God, His way is perfect" (II Samuel 22:31). This perfection directs our attention to the cross of Calvary where "God hath made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21). A just God can righteously justify sinners because He righteously condemned the Lord Jesus to the wrath we deserved - "just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:26). Indeed, any adequate Biblical understanding of what happened on the cross of Calvary yields a complete confidence in how forgiven and made righteous God accounts believers to be in Christ. We may not always live accordingly, and believers are ever subject to chastening and scourging by the Father who loves us (Hebrews 12:6). However, the judgment fires that burned so hotly upon the Lord Jesus on the cross now illuminate the eyes of our hearts to behold the freely and forever bestowed righteousness "unto all and upon all them that believe." In the light of Calvary, how could it be otherwise?
Find the believer in this hour most inexcusably felled by temptation and sin. God does not and "will not impute sin" to this son or daughter. He rather sees the robe of Christ's righteousness that continues to adorn the fallen. He remembers the robe stripped from His Son as He hung upon Calvary's cross, and the sacrifice of sorrow deemed so precious in His sight that His wayward child remains justified in His sight. Certainly, He is not pleased with what He sees of unbelief and disobedience. Recall that the writer of Hebrews referenced believers when he declared, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). God disciplines His children, including the "most inexcusably felled" we consider. However, nothing will cause our Father to ignore the robe, the robe of Christ's righteousness that adorns every believer, woven at such a cost and freely given by such grace. "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?… He hath made us accepted in the Beloved" (Matthew 27:46; Ephesians 1:6).
Paul proclaims a righteous relationship and standing with God so freely given and maintained by the Lord Jesus that our Father will not see us apart from Christ. We may not always requite such a marvel of grace. But God will always view us through the lens of such a measure of grace. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20). Romans 3:21 tells us this, and let us rejoice in its wonder yet again…
"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe."
(Romans 3:21)
Weekly Memory Verse
We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
(Ephesians 1:7-8)
7150
No comments:
Post a Comment