His Righteousness
Have you ever had a "light bulb" moment? Or thought you understood something and then one day "poof" you actually got it?!
Well, that happened to me this week, so let me share...
We hear as Christians all the time that it is Christ's work on the cross that saves us. That we can't do enough good to earn salvation or enough bad to prevent it. I've always believed that truth, but I realized that it's been more of a head knowledge and acceptance than a heart one.
I don't know about you, but I have always struggled significantly with guilt. I can always make something my fault even if I had nothing to do with it... Anybody else with that special gift?
It is exhausting. I never feel good enough which means I always work super hard to do the right thing all the time. But you know as well as I do how impossible that is. Thus the wretched guilt continues...
But Sunday at church, our precious pastor (aka my hubby) shared a scripture I have heard many times, but that day I heard it differently:
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
- Romans 8:10-11
My ears perked up when he said righteousness and the fact that it's the Spirit who is doing all the work. Then fast forward to later that day when I was reading through James:
And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
- James 3:18
There was that word righteousness again.
Then as I was reading Sacred Endurance (I'll blog about this one in a few more weeks) I read, "The motivation you and I have as we live out our faith and pursue godliness comes through what has already been fully accomplished by Jesus and His free gift of saving grace." - Trillia Newbell
So in all my guilt and in all my striving for perfection I am actually forfeiting the freedom found in Christ and His Spirit. There is nothing I have done or could ever do to make me righteous or godly. That can only be done by the Spirit that is in me. I have known this but haven't fully accepted and lived it. I have both believed I could do enough work to make myself righteous and have also veered the other direction and believed I was unworthy and useless. And both are wrong! Neither thought leads me to depend on the work of Christ. The COMPLETE work of Christ. HE makes all things new. HE works all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. I can't accept the praise because I didn't do the work.
Second Peter 1:3-4a says this: "His divine power has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature..."
Over and over again scripture tells us where our righteousness and godliness comes from. It is fully imparted to us from Christ! Nothing good and right that I do with right motivation is from me alone but is Christ in me and the glory solely belongs to Him, not me.
Think about it this way... I love to bake cookies, particularly chocolate chip cookies. So when I am baking I use my mixer, a spatula, measuring cups and spoons and a baking stone. When I have taken my nice piping hot and gooey cookies (nobody likes hard cookies, yuck!) out of the oven the house fills with the wonderful aroma and my kids and hubby come running lol. When they take that first yummy bite what do you think they say? "Oh wow! Hey mixer you made the best cookies today! Your skilled ability to mix the ingredients at just the right speed really makes these cookies perfect!" NO!!!
They absolutely don't say that and if they did they might get smacked with the spatula! (Ha! Ha!)
What do they say? "Mom, these cookies are wonderful! You make the best cookies!"
The utensils do not get the credit for the cookies, the baker does right?! It would be crazy to praise the tools for the cookies. I mean yes, they are necessary for the desired outcome, but without the baker they couldn't do anything to make cookies. It's the same with God. We are His workmanship made in His image to bear witness of His Good News to the world around us. But we don't do this on our own. We can't. At least not effectively. It is He who works in us, so it's Him who deserves the glory. Not me and mot you.
I don't know about you, but there is so much freedom in that for me. Freedom in that it doesn't all rest on me. I don't have to muster up the strength, energy or ability to do what the Lord calls me to do. I just have to step forward into trusting that He will give me what I need when I need it. That is hard to do sometimes, but the more we do it the easier it gets to trust and depend on Him. What have you been trying to do in your own strength and how is that going? How do you need to depend on Christ today? Are you relying on His righteousness or are you trying to muster up your own? Stop, rest and be encouraged in the truth that it is He who makes you righteous.
Well, that happened to me this week, so let me share...
We hear as Christians all the time that it is Christ's work on the cross that saves us. That we can't do enough good to earn salvation or enough bad to prevent it. I've always believed that truth, but I realized that it's been more of a head knowledge and acceptance than a heart one.
I don't know about you, but I have always struggled significantly with guilt. I can always make something my fault even if I had nothing to do with it... Anybody else with that special gift?
It is exhausting. I never feel good enough which means I always work super hard to do the right thing all the time. But you know as well as I do how impossible that is. Thus the wretched guilt continues...
But Sunday at church, our precious pastor (aka my hubby) shared a scripture I have heard many times, but that day I heard it differently:
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
- Romans 8:10-11
My ears perked up when he said righteousness and the fact that it's the Spirit who is doing all the work. Then fast forward to later that day when I was reading through James:
And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
- James 3:18
There was that word righteousness again.
Then as I was reading Sacred Endurance (I'll blog about this one in a few more weeks) I read, "The motivation you and I have as we live out our faith and pursue godliness comes through what has already been fully accomplished by Jesus and His free gift of saving grace." - Trillia Newbell
So in all my guilt and in all my striving for perfection I am actually forfeiting the freedom found in Christ and His Spirit. There is nothing I have done or could ever do to make me righteous or godly. That can only be done by the Spirit that is in me. I have known this but haven't fully accepted and lived it. I have both believed I could do enough work to make myself righteous and have also veered the other direction and believed I was unworthy and useless. And both are wrong! Neither thought leads me to depend on the work of Christ. The COMPLETE work of Christ. HE makes all things new. HE works all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. I can't accept the praise because I didn't do the work.
Second Peter 1:3-4a says this: "His divine power has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature..."
Over and over again scripture tells us where our righteousness and godliness comes from. It is fully imparted to us from Christ! Nothing good and right that I do with right motivation is from me alone but is Christ in me and the glory solely belongs to Him, not me.
Think about it this way... I love to bake cookies, particularly chocolate chip cookies. So when I am baking I use my mixer, a spatula, measuring cups and spoons and a baking stone. When I have taken my nice piping hot and gooey cookies (nobody likes hard cookies, yuck!) out of the oven the house fills with the wonderful aroma and my kids and hubby come running lol. When they take that first yummy bite what do you think they say? "Oh wow! Hey mixer you made the best cookies today! Your skilled ability to mix the ingredients at just the right speed really makes these cookies perfect!" NO!!!
They absolutely don't say that and if they did they might get smacked with the spatula! (Ha! Ha!)
What do they say? "Mom, these cookies are wonderful! You make the best cookies!"
The utensils do not get the credit for the cookies, the baker does right?! It would be crazy to praise the tools for the cookies. I mean yes, they are necessary for the desired outcome, but without the baker they couldn't do anything to make cookies. It's the same with God. We are His workmanship made in His image to bear witness of His Good News to the world around us. But we don't do this on our own. We can't. At least not effectively. It is He who works in us, so it's Him who deserves the glory. Not me and mot you.
I don't know about you, but there is so much freedom in that for me. Freedom in that it doesn't all rest on me. I don't have to muster up the strength, energy or ability to do what the Lord calls me to do. I just have to step forward into trusting that He will give me what I need when I need it. That is hard to do sometimes, but the more we do it the easier it gets to trust and depend on Him. What have you been trying to do in your own strength and how is that going? How do you need to depend on Christ today? Are you relying on His righteousness or are you trying to muster up your own? Stop, rest and be encouraged in the truth that it is He who makes you righteous.
But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will
be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all
Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Acts 1:8
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