"Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth." (Psalm 119:142)
Today we are in the midst of Rosh Hashanha. We are told that Rosh Hashanha and Yom Kippur, which follows 10 days later, is the Jewish New Year and "Day of Atonement" respectively. It is a time when the Jews "embark upon the serious task of examining their lives." It is called a "time of...trying to be a better person." It sounds noble enough, but most Jews of the First Century AD rejected Jesus for this very reason; no one saves me except me. The Day of Atonement was never meant to be a time for "trying to be a better person." Our Lord Jesus said this to the Jews, and the first "Messianic Jews" proclaimed this throughout the Roman Empire.
While introspection does have Biblical roots, one can over do it to the degree that he/she becomes the focus rather than Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. Our text is full of the glory of the Living Triune God, His mercy and grace, His Faithful Provision for mankind. The Bible does not advocate self-made religion; it condemns it. What the Bible does command is absolute dependency, trust in, reliance on, obedience to Jesus Christ; and all of this is, as Moses told the Jews of antiquity, "for our good." Jesus atoned for sin, not I, nor you, nor any other. Only Jesus Christ is, "an everlasting righteousness." Man's attempt at righteousness lasts only long enough to salve a guilty conscience, a self justification for the life it attempts to "purify," and more seriously, to build a "Tower-of-Babel-righteousness," a righteousness-tower which attempts to storm Heaven and make man the center of the universe rather than Jesus Christ.
But no need to go down that road today. You can see the futility of man's attempt to make himself righteous. You have discovered and accepted and are building your life on the reality that, "Your law is truth." You have rejected all claims of "truth" which rejects the absolute Supremacy of Jesus Christ and His Words; you have not succumbed to the lies of, "the father of lies," because your Father is He Whom the Bible describes as the One Who, "chose us in Jesus before the foundation of the world." He did the choosing; He does the keeping, and He Alone, "does" the righteousness. I can say our text this way today: "Because, 'Your law is truth,' I know that the only righteousness which can save me, make me whole and accepted, 'in the Beloved,' Jesus, is the, "everlasting righteousness," found only in Jesus Christ. No one but He Who Alone is Truth declares this. So I only believe Him. "On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I am so thankful that You are my Atonement for sin. You, Jesus, alone are that sacrifice on the altar, You alone are the One who was driven into the "wilderness" for my sin. Thank You. Amen.
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Today we are in the midst of Rosh Hashanha. We are told that Rosh Hashanha and Yom Kippur, which follows 10 days later, is the Jewish New Year and "Day of Atonement" respectively. It is a time when the Jews "embark upon the serious task of examining their lives." It is called a "time of...trying to be a better person." It sounds noble enough, but most Jews of the First Century AD rejected Jesus for this very reason; no one saves me except me. The Day of Atonement was never meant to be a time for "trying to be a better person." Our Lord Jesus said this to the Jews, and the first "Messianic Jews" proclaimed this throughout the Roman Empire.
While introspection does have Biblical roots, one can over do it to the degree that he/she becomes the focus rather than Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. Our text is full of the glory of the Living Triune God, His mercy and grace, His Faithful Provision for mankind. The Bible does not advocate self-made religion; it condemns it. What the Bible does command is absolute dependency, trust in, reliance on, obedience to Jesus Christ; and all of this is, as Moses told the Jews of antiquity, "for our good." Jesus atoned for sin, not I, nor you, nor any other. Only Jesus Christ is, "an everlasting righteousness." Man's attempt at righteousness lasts only long enough to salve a guilty conscience, a self justification for the life it attempts to "purify," and more seriously, to build a "Tower-of-Babel-righteousness," a righteousness-tower which attempts to storm Heaven and make man the center of the universe rather than Jesus Christ.
But no need to go down that road today. You can see the futility of man's attempt to make himself righteous. You have discovered and accepted and are building your life on the reality that, "Your law is truth." You have rejected all claims of "truth" which rejects the absolute Supremacy of Jesus Christ and His Words; you have not succumbed to the lies of, "the father of lies," because your Father is He Whom the Bible describes as the One Who, "chose us in Jesus before the foundation of the world." He did the choosing; He does the keeping, and He Alone, "does" the righteousness. I can say our text this way today: "Because, 'Your law is truth,' I know that the only righteousness which can save me, make me whole and accepted, 'in the Beloved,' Jesus, is the, "everlasting righteousness," found only in Jesus Christ. No one but He Who Alone is Truth declares this. So I only believe Him. "On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I am so thankful that You are my Atonement for sin. You, Jesus, alone are that sacrifice on the altar, You alone are the One who was driven into the "wilderness" for my sin. Thank You. Amen.
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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
