The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Righteousness - Root and Fruit"
"God sees the believer as righteous because His grace received through Christ so unites us with Christ that we are "accepted in the Beloved."
God forever sees born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ as enrobed with righteousness because on the cross of Calvary He saw the Lord Jesus as enrobed with our sin.
"He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21).
Do we share our Heavenly Father's viewpoint? We must, because we can only walk in truth as we rightly perceive the truth. The challenge we face involves the fact that we do not always bear "the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:11). We sometimes see our limbs as empty of fruit, or even worse, as bearing produce that belies rather than reflects the truth of our righteousness in Christ. Believers can and do still sin, despite our newness of life and being as united to the Spirit of the Lord Jesus (I John 1:8). As the Apostle Paul confirmed, "Now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8; emphasis added). Presently, being rooted in Christ's righteousness does not always result in the fruits thereof.
Nevertheless, we must not retreat from the shared affirmation with our Heavenly Father that "of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us… righteousness" (I Corinthians 1:30). Note the Apostle Paul declared this truth of how God sees His trusting children in Christ to the Corinthians, who at the time lived as "carnal" despite being "the temple of the Holy Spirit" (I Corinthians 3:3; 16). In fact, a reading of I Corinthians reveals that the very first application of God's remedy to their carnality was Paul's declaration of the Corinthians' serving as the Holy Spirit's spiritual temple. Their corrupt fruit did not alter their righteous relationship to the perfect Root that bore them - "rooted and built up in Him" (Colossians 2:7).
God sees the believer as righteous because His grace received through Christ so unites us with Christ that we are "accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). We are in Christ, Christ is in us, and our Heavenly Father honors the measure of His Son's sacrifice by forever sealing the mercy bestowed on those who trust Him. "O give thanks unto the Lord, because He is gracious: for His mercy endureth forever" (Jeremiah 33:67). Such a gift makes our fruit bearing all the more important and significant because how we live as branches reflects - well or poorly - on the Root to whom we are connected. The more we discover this blessed truth as the Bible affirms and explains, the more we will live in the glory of its grace. Yes, we must see ourselves as God sees us, a perspective of righteousness that overwhelms our hearts with the wonder of grace, and empowers our minds, hands, and feet to "bear the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ…"
"God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."
(II Corinthians 9:8)
"The Root of the righteous yieldeth fruit."
(Proverbs 12:12)
Weekly Memory Verse
The Root of the righteous yieldeth fruit.
(Proverb 12:12)
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