Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way. (Verse 13)
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne. Steadfast love and faithfulness go before You. Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of Your face, who exult in Your name all the day and in Your righteousness are exalted. Psalm 89
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is as filthy rags. Isaiah 64
Righteousness is such a lofty word. Tied for so long with its cousin, self-righteousness, it has some ugly undertones. If you are righteous you must be like the Westboro Christians who hate monger with signs and spit outside of funerals. Or you kill abortion doctors and vote for the death penalty. With their noses in the air, the righteous live above the prostitute or adulterer, the thief or addict, the poor and destitute. To be righteous is to be proud. My stomach is already turning. But these were the very people Jesus railed against, calling them "white-washed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness." Matthew 23 is pretty much a diatribe by Christ on self-righteousness. So that can't be what it is that "goes before us to make our footsteps a way."
I am righteous. There. I've said it. I know. I know. When you look at my life, it ain't perfect! That isn't what I'm claiming. Because I know with Isaiah that all the good things I try to do in my flesh are worth about nothing. I'm not righteous because I'm so good. I'm righteous because He is good. That pretty much leaves out any boasting on my part. The rules of the Law served to show me (and the Pharisees) that we can't keep them. It just isn't in us. Not only are the Ten Commandments impossible, the Jewish leaders added hundreds more rules to them. Why? The more rules you claim to abide perfectly by, the more righteous you are. Right? Except pride becomes the tape worm of the heart, eating alive the very thing that could make us right. Our humble acknowledgment that we are nothing without Him. So, what makes me righteous today as I sit here? Not the sterling way in which I keep all the rules, never breaking them. Not the way I lord it over those whose missteps lead them to disgrace. Not that I can go to sleep at night with a clear conscience because, by golly, nothing was my fault yesterday!
Relationship is why I can say Jesus prepares the Way in front of me. I deserve the death penalty for my sins. A holy God demands absolute perfection. On my best day, I am so far from perfection it's not even funny. If I count my thoughts along with my deeds, which God does, I am absolutely hopeless. I cannot work hard enough to purge my life of all that is unpleasing to Holiness. That is why I need Jesus. He was and is the penultimate. His sandals flapped on this dusty earth He spoke, as the Logos, into being to live the life I couldn't and die the death I now won't have to. If that sounds like an amazing story, it is! The proof of its validity isn't in the history that bears it out, but in the lives completely changed by the Son of God Who now lives in me. That, by the Holy Spirit, Jesus could take this woman with a propensity for all the wrong things and make her want only to please Him is a miracle of miracles. Multiplied millions of times in others throughout the last two thousand years. If there is anything good in me, it comes as a result of my relationship with Christ Who died for me. How can I then look at anyone else from my ivory tower of purity and judge their way? Instead I look from a broken life, restored by the grace of Jesus, and pray for that same grace in others.
My righteousness is a gift. Really. Bestowed on me, free of charge...to me. Paid for in full at the expense of His life. There is no room for bragging about it. Great thankfulness is all I can come up with. It makes me follow the Way. Hand in hand, my path lighted by the favor of the Father I gained when I loved His Son, I walk on down the road following after His love, sustained by His faithfulness. You won't hear me shout about how great I am when He leads me aright. What you will hear is a shout of joy, though, because I will always know Jesus has brought me to a place I could never have found on my own!
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified (made right) by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus! (italics mine) Romans 3
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne. Steadfast love and faithfulness go before You. Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of Your face, who exult in Your name all the day and in Your righteousness are exalted. Psalm 89
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is as filthy rags. Isaiah 64
Righteousness is such a lofty word. Tied for so long with its cousin, self-righteousness, it has some ugly undertones. If you are righteous you must be like the Westboro Christians who hate monger with signs and spit outside of funerals. Or you kill abortion doctors and vote for the death penalty. With their noses in the air, the righteous live above the prostitute or adulterer, the thief or addict, the poor and destitute. To be righteous is to be proud. My stomach is already turning. But these were the very people Jesus railed against, calling them "white-washed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness." Matthew 23 is pretty much a diatribe by Christ on self-righteousness. So that can't be what it is that "goes before us to make our footsteps a way."
I am righteous. There. I've said it. I know. I know. When you look at my life, it ain't perfect! That isn't what I'm claiming. Because I know with Isaiah that all the good things I try to do in my flesh are worth about nothing. I'm not righteous because I'm so good. I'm righteous because He is good. That pretty much leaves out any boasting on my part. The rules of the Law served to show me (and the Pharisees) that we can't keep them. It just isn't in us. Not only are the Ten Commandments impossible, the Jewish leaders added hundreds more rules to them. Why? The more rules you claim to abide perfectly by, the more righteous you are. Right? Except pride becomes the tape worm of the heart, eating alive the very thing that could make us right. Our humble acknowledgment that we are nothing without Him. So, what makes me righteous today as I sit here? Not the sterling way in which I keep all the rules, never breaking them. Not the way I lord it over those whose missteps lead them to disgrace. Not that I can go to sleep at night with a clear conscience because, by golly, nothing was my fault yesterday!
Relationship is why I can say Jesus prepares the Way in front of me. I deserve the death penalty for my sins. A holy God demands absolute perfection. On my best day, I am so far from perfection it's not even funny. If I count my thoughts along with my deeds, which God does, I am absolutely hopeless. I cannot work hard enough to purge my life of all that is unpleasing to Holiness. That is why I need Jesus. He was and is the penultimate. His sandals flapped on this dusty earth He spoke, as the Logos, into being to live the life I couldn't and die the death I now won't have to. If that sounds like an amazing story, it is! The proof of its validity isn't in the history that bears it out, but in the lives completely changed by the Son of God Who now lives in me. That, by the Holy Spirit, Jesus could take this woman with a propensity for all the wrong things and make her want only to please Him is a miracle of miracles. Multiplied millions of times in others throughout the last two thousand years. If there is anything good in me, it comes as a result of my relationship with Christ Who died for me. How can I then look at anyone else from my ivory tower of purity and judge their way? Instead I look from a broken life, restored by the grace of Jesus, and pray for that same grace in others.
My righteousness is a gift. Really. Bestowed on me, free of charge...to me. Paid for in full at the expense of His life. There is no room for bragging about it. Great thankfulness is all I can come up with. It makes me follow the Way. Hand in hand, my path lighted by the favor of the Father I gained when I loved His Son, I walk on down the road following after His love, sustained by His faithfulness. You won't hear me shout about how great I am when He leads me aright. What you will hear is a shout of joy, though, because I will always know Jesus has brought me to a place I could never have found on my own!
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified (made right) by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus! (italics mine) Romans 3
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