Salvation Assured SEEKING RIGHTEOUSNESS BY SEEKING JESUS
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matt. 5:6.
Have you ever seen someone who was absolutely certain that he had committed the unpardonable sin? He was so worried about it! But the very fact that he was worried about it said something, didn't it?
I remember one camp meeting when each pastor took charge of a little group and conducted a testimony meeting. In my group, one elderly man who obviously has just come to Christ got up. His lip was quivering, and he was having a hard time keeping the tears back. He said, "For a long time God tried to get me, and He finally got me." And he sat down. I don't remember any of the other testimonies that were given that day, but I remember that one. I like it. I think God tries for a long time, don't you?
Provision has been made for Jesus to trade all of His righteousness for all of your sins. What is righteousness? We have some stock answers that we like to give. One of them is that righteousness is rightdoing. That's true. You can find an inspired statement to that effect. But let's not miss all the rest of them, too. Sometimes we become experts at taking sentences out of context and forgetting the rest. If righteousness is nothing more than rightdoing, then all you would have to do to become righteous would be to do what's right. Do you see the trap? Someone else says that righteousness is conformity to the will of God. That's true, and you can find an inspired statement for that. But there's also a trap there. You can be led, if you're not careful, to the idea that all you have to do is conform to the law of God. But that conformity can be merely external.
So as you go through the definitions, you can come to great frustration unless you face the only real live definition: righteousness equals Jesus. Romans 1:17: "Therein is the righteousness of God revealed," in the gospel of Jesus. The only kind of righteousness this world has ever known in a real live person was in the Lord Jesus Christ. The best single definition for righteousness is Jesus. When we read, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness," what we're really saying is, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after Jesus."
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matt. 5:6.
Have you ever seen someone who was absolutely certain that he had committed the unpardonable sin? He was so worried about it! But the very fact that he was worried about it said something, didn't it?
I remember one camp meeting when each pastor took charge of a little group and conducted a testimony meeting. In my group, one elderly man who obviously has just come to Christ got up. His lip was quivering, and he was having a hard time keeping the tears back. He said, "For a long time God tried to get me, and He finally got me." And he sat down. I don't remember any of the other testimonies that were given that day, but I remember that one. I like it. I think God tries for a long time, don't you?
Provision has been made for Jesus to trade all of His righteousness for all of your sins. What is righteousness? We have some stock answers that we like to give. One of them is that righteousness is rightdoing. That's true. You can find an inspired statement to that effect. But let's not miss all the rest of them, too. Sometimes we become experts at taking sentences out of context and forgetting the rest. If righteousness is nothing more than rightdoing, then all you would have to do to become righteous would be to do what's right. Do you see the trap? Someone else says that righteousness is conformity to the will of God. That's true, and you can find an inspired statement for that. But there's also a trap there. You can be led, if you're not careful, to the idea that all you have to do is conform to the law of God. But that conformity can be merely external.
So as you go through the definitions, you can come to great frustration unless you face the only real live definition: righteousness equals Jesus. Romans 1:17: "Therein is the righteousness of God revealed," in the gospel of Jesus. The only kind of righteousness this world has ever known in a real live person was in the Lord Jesus Christ. The best single definition for righteousness is Jesus. When we read, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness," what we're really saying is, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after Jesus."
RSS Feed
