The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Righteousness: Achieved Or Received?"
The Lord Jesus Christ serves as the paradigm of humanity. He is what God made human beings to be, and we are only acceptable to our Heavenly Father if we are perfectly like His beloved Son.
"Walk, even as He walked" (I John 2:6).
Uhoh. Upon first reflection, this excludes every human being born of Adam's race from acceptability with God.
"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
"Your iniquities have separated between you and your God" (Isaiah 59:2).
Upon further reflection, as led by the Holy Spirit, the Bible, and the testimonies of millions of believers in the Lord Jesus through the ages, God has made a way to rescue us from the rejection and condemnation we all rightly merit. James and the Apostle Paul unite to bear witness to our only hope for acceptance with God:
"And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God" (James 2:23).
"And therefore it was imputed to Abraham for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead" (Romans 4:22-24).
We either achieve spiritual perfection and acceptance with God by being exactly like the Lord Jesus from conception unto forevermore. Or we receive righteous standing and relationship with God as a "free gift" imputed - placed on our account - whereby His grace received by faith leads us to be "accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). No other options exist. The perfection God requires - Christ's righteousness - must either be achieved or received. The former is impossible. The latter is the Gospel.
"As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name" (John 1:12).
The more we discover the character, nature and way of the Savior in the Scriptures, the more we realize we can never of our own doings be like Him. In Heaven and earth, there is no one like the Lord Jesus, the glorious second Person of triune God who become the wondrous "second man" of the human race (Hebrews 1:8; I Corinthians 15:47). No other can be like Him in terms of His perfect synthesis of divinity and humanity, or of the life He lived and lives. Nor can any "walk even as He walked" apart from Him. Herein shines the beauty of the Gospel. Those are believe in the Lord Jesus are not apart from Him. He dwells within us, and even more, "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16). Thereby, God accepts our person because we are spiritually united to Christ. He also accepts those works that proceed from our Lord's presence and active engagement on our behalf (II Corinthians 5:9).
"Accepted in the Beloved" means more than even eternity will fully reveal. For now, it tells us that our imperfect response to God does not and cannot alter the fact of our righteousness with Him. How should man be just (righteous) with God?" asked Job long ago (Job 9:2). Paul answers. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). That which we could never achieve, God made possible for us to receive. Thereby, and only thereby, can the standard required be met. Moreover, the more we grow in our understanding of the root of Christ's righteousness freely planted in us, the more we will "be filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God" (Philippians 1:11).
Righteous with God, and accepted by Him. Achieved or received? Christ alone provides the only redeeming answer and hope for every human heart. The better we know such blessed truth, the more God's peace will fill our hearts and His presence will empower our hands and feet. His grace in the Lord Jesus alone provides such hope for the acceptance of our person and the acceptable life we increasingly live thereby.
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
(Titus 3:4-7)
"Let us have grace, that we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear."
(Hebrews 12:28)
Weekly Memory Verse
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
(I John 4:10)
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