God’s perspective is the only one that matters. His has the weight of eternity and transcendence behind it. All others are like dust in the wind.
Which brings us to righteousness. Righteousness is the thing we need most. To be righteous is to be right with God; to be able to stand before Him, share in His life, abide in His Glory. Abraham was one of the most noble and godly men who ever lived. And yet from God's perspective, nothing he ever did or didn’t do was able to make him righteous. It had nothing to do with how he compared to other people or what a great man we think of him as being.
Ge15:6 tells us, “Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness.” God alone can declare someone righteous. He has to impart it. There is no other way. That's His decision, not ours. And paradoxically, God has chosen to declare to be right those who have absolutely no confidence in their own goodness, i.e., the tax collector who could only cry out "Lord have mercy on me a sinner" and the prodigal who had rehearsed how he would confess to his father how unworthy he was.
It’s when we find nothing in ourselves in which to hope, that we are finally positioned to fully receive Grace and be declared right. Many believers take most of their lives to really get there. Some who struggle most are those who have accomplished the most, sacrificed the most, and served the most. These are the ones who are often lulled into believing there is now something in them that can make them acceptable to God. It wasn't only in Jesus’ day that prostitutes were often better positioned to embrace Grace than the religious elite or the rich and powerful.
God could have opted for any standard when it comes to what makes someone acceptable to Him. But beginning with Abraham, and later affirmed by the Apostle Paul, He Sovereignly chose faith. Twenty seven years into my Christian walk I’m still learning what that means. The good news is, the more I abandon any pretense of righteousness deep within myself, the more the Lord seems to see fit to enable me to experience His Grace and Life here and now.
Which brings us to righteousness. Righteousness is the thing we need most. To be righteous is to be right with God; to be able to stand before Him, share in His life, abide in His Glory. Abraham was one of the most noble and godly men who ever lived. And yet from God's perspective, nothing he ever did or didn’t do was able to make him righteous. It had nothing to do with how he compared to other people or what a great man we think of him as being.
Ge15:6 tells us, “Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness.” God alone can declare someone righteous. He has to impart it. There is no other way. That's His decision, not ours. And paradoxically, God has chosen to declare to be right those who have absolutely no confidence in their own goodness, i.e., the tax collector who could only cry out "Lord have mercy on me a sinner" and the prodigal who had rehearsed how he would confess to his father how unworthy he was.
It’s when we find nothing in ourselves in which to hope, that we are finally positioned to fully receive Grace and be declared right. Many believers take most of their lives to really get there. Some who struggle most are those who have accomplished the most, sacrificed the most, and served the most. These are the ones who are often lulled into believing there is now something in them that can make them acceptable to God. It wasn't only in Jesus’ day that prostitutes were often better positioned to embrace Grace than the religious elite or the rich and powerful.
God could have opted for any standard when it comes to what makes someone acceptable to Him. But beginning with Abraham, and later affirmed by the Apostle Paul, He Sovereignly chose faith. Twenty seven years into my Christian walk I’m still learning what that means. The good news is, the more I abandon any pretense of righteousness deep within myself, the more the Lord seems to see fit to enable me to experience His Grace and Life here and now.
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