O Lord God, my God, I know that you hear the righteous when they call. You listen to their prayer and turn your face toward them. Yet you hear me, one who by nature is far from your righteousness. What comfort and joy I find when I remember your gospel message that Christ Jesus has become my righteousness. You have given me the gift of your only begotten Son so that when you look at me, you see His holy perfection, His perfect obedience. I can pray to you with confidence in His Name knowing that in Christ, the Sun of Righteousness will rise for me with healing in His wings.
Our Lord has given us, His chosen people, a priceless gift announced to us in the gospel of Christ. Christ Jesus is offered to all as righteousness. God has offered to count Jesus' sinless perfection as our own in exchange for our faith in His Son:
2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
We must remember that this is a gift offered to us freely out of God's forgiving mercy and grace:
Romans 5:17 For if, by the trespass of the one man [Adam], death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
Christ died for me, wiping away the sin that stood against me. He rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God as my advocate, my mediator, my intercessor, my representative, my priest before the ultimate judgement seat. I know my righteousness is nothing. In myself I stand guilty. But I have been given a new standing before God, fully undeserved.
Do I really realize what this means? God is at peace with me because He is at peace with His Son. God is pleased with me because He is pleased with Jesus. God has adopted me as a son, because I am in His Son. God will listen to my cry for help because He listens to His Son. God judges me innocent from guilt because Christ is innocent. I bear no shame because the Son of God bears no shame. Not just for me but for all his people; for all you believe in his name. This is the gospel preached to us!
1 comment:
I didn't really know about that verse in Malachi 4:2 about the Sun of Righteousness. How good that you shared it. As I opened a bible and studied it I also discovered that Luke 1:78-79 Christ is the "Rising Sun" from heaven.
"...Because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace." Luke 1:78-79
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