Our Righteousness Is From The Lord! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Romans 9:15-33,

"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy… Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden… What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

 

It becomes an astonishing reality to many of us when it finally dawns on us that the Lord's call is an invitation for us to join his family on the basis of faith, to embrace Jesus Christ in faith: it is not something we earn by establishing our own righteousness. Joining God's family is not an exercise in doing things; it is an exercise of faith. In Romans 4 we read about the faith of Abraham and how his faith was credited to him as righteousness. Here we read that the Lord has chosen those who will respond to him in faith as did Abraham. The Lord has not chosen those who attempt to establish their own righteousness, he is looking for those who embrace that same type of faith Abraham had in the Lord.

 

This means any of us can become children of God. Not just the educated theologian, not just the wealthy that have so much to give to good causes, not particularly those who are able to gain a great following, not just those who seem to have the ability to engage in religious disciplines with the passion of a zealot. Those whom the Lord has chosen as his are those of us who demonstrate a passion for him by embracing Jesus Christ in faith. Today I find this a wonderful theme of worship!! We are the ones who sail into the resurrection not based on what we have done but based on what he whom we have placed our faith in did!! Our righteousness is from the Lord himself!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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