The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
“Righteousness: Root and Fruit”
Righteousness applies to born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of both standing and walking.
“The root of the righteous shall not be moved” (Proverbs 12:3).
“Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:11).
In terms of standing and relationship with God through Christ, every believer is as righteous as all others. Our justification in this sense relies completely on God accounting us as enrobed with His Son’s righteousness, imputed to us as a free gift at the time of our new birth. The Apostle Paul proclaims such grace by declaring “Christ Jesus… made unto us righteousness” (I Corinthians 1:30-31). God sees every believer as “in Christ,” meaning that He views us as spiritually united to His Son and “accepted in the Beloved” (II Corinthians 1:30; Ephesians 1:6). Isaiah Watts beautifully illustrated this in his hymn, “Awake My Heart, Arise My Tongue:”
“And lest the shadow of a spot should on my soul be found, He took the robe the Savior wrought, and cast it all around!”
Conversely, a range of righteousness, as it were, exists regarding the bearing “the fruits of righteousness.” The New Testament epistles plainly speak to some believers being prolific in fruit bearing, others paltry, and most likely somewhere in between. The writers affirm the faithful, challenge the wayward, and address the need for all to abound “more and more” in knowing the love of Christ that dwells in every believer, but moves in varying degrees based on response to God (Romans 5:5; Philippians 1:9).
In countenance, demeanor, attitude, word, and deed, believers can appear as healthy trees, or as sickly plants much in need of care. The life of the True Vine dwells in all (Romans 8:9). However, the fruit of the Spirit that should hang heavy on all branches of the righteous may or may not be present. No excuses exist for the latter, and the Gardener who tends His beloved garden loves them all enough to make necessary cuts of pruning when and as necessary (Hebrews 12:6; 10:31).
The tragedy of such discipline is that it occurs in those who are accounted no less righteous in standing than are the faithful. “The Lord shall judge His people” declared the writer of Hebrews, who also warned, speaking of believers, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (unbelievers being cast away from the Lord, rather than falling into His hands - Hebrews 10:30-31; Matthew 25:41). No sadder calamity exists than a believer enrobed with the abiding righteousness of Christ, but failing to avail himself of the freest gift ever given, purchased by the highest cost ever remitted. “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).
We must increasingly discover both the cost and extent of our standing and relationship with God in the righteousness of Christ. How horribly did He suffer to purchase the gift? How freely is it therefore given and maintained? How vital is it that every blood-washed, Spirit-enlivened, and grace-imbued branch in the True Vine hang heavy with the fruit of the Spirit? The answers lie not in
the branches, but in the Vine, namely, the infinitely wondrous Person and work of the Lord Jesus. Who is He to the believer? What has He done, what is He doing, and what will He forevermore do for us? To the degree we find the answers to these, the greatest questions of our existence, determine the appreciation of our standing in Christ, and the faithfulness of our walking by Him. Little wonder the Apostle Peter called us to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18). Thereby, and only thereby, will the immovable Root of the righteous result in its branches hanging heavy with “the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ.”
“For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.”
(Romans 5:19)
“And 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, as it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; He hath given to the poor, His righteousness remaineth forever. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness.”
(II Corinthians 9:8-10)
Weekly Memory Verse
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
(Hebrews 11:1)
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