Welcome back to The Road2Wholeness Blog! And welcome back to Blogger... Thank you for visiting The Road2Wholeness Blog. We are ready to continue the “P” series. Today’s blog is titled The Purpose of Righteousness.
I begin this blog with the statement God laid on my heart
this past Easter Sunday… it’s, “Righteousness can wiggle its way out of any
grave". This is such a profound
statement that I will treasure probably for the rest of my life. This statement is also well in line with the
Gospel, and the great hope we put in Christ to receive eternal life.
So what is the purpose of righteousness? Let’s begin by looking at Joshua 2:1-7. It tells the story Rahab a prostitute who is
living in the land that was promised to the Israelites. She has heard along with many others how
mightily the God of the Israelites have been moving on their behalf, and she
knows that the land will be invaded.
When Joshua sends two spies to look over the land and return to him with
a report, she seizes her opportunity to save herself and her family.
Later in Hebrews eleven, she is honored for her faith and
listed among many men of great faith; men such as Joseph, Moses, and even
Abraham. Now, some can look on her role and call her an
opportunist, however, if we look again, we will see the value she provided to
the Israelites at a very crucial time.
It’s important to remember that this was not the first time men had gone
to scope out the promised land. Under
Moses’ leadership the first set of men brought back a negative report. The report they gave dissuaded the entire
camp and made the people fearful to pursue the promise.
Therefore
her role was quite significant because it did not only save her life, but it
saved the lives of the two men Joshua sent, and allowed the children of Israel
to get into position to receive what was their inheritance. Thus her faith produced righteous action, and
again we see the principle that was noted in the LAB series; that faith is
counted as righteousness.
This is an important way to look at righteousness because if
our righteousness never produces righteous action then what we are doing is
simply storing up our goodness. This is
great in that we don’t negatively impact our world, yet it also does not make
the greatest impact. I say this because
all the righteous people in the world could not help God’s plan until a
righteous act was offered. It is also
important that we see Rahab the way God sees her. In that day, people who did not believe in
the God of the Hebrew people would not assist them even to save their own
lives. This is the reason God showed how
many plagues (opportunities) were given to pharaoh, and how many times he still
pursued the Israelites. He pursued them
to death. Therefore her faith was counted.
As we know the most righteous act ever performed was the
death of the Lord on the cross. It was
the greatest act of Love, and it covered a multitude of sin. What we can see with all of the people God
chose to serve Him, with the exception of Christ, is that they were not without
sin, but their acts of love—their righteous acts covered a multitude of sin.
Therefore, the Purpose of Righteousness is to cover a
multitude of sin, and not just our own.
We look again at Christ who was without sin, and whose grace
sufficiently covers all the sin ever committed as well as all the sin that will
ever be committed.
Now let’s look at what constitutes a righteous act. First, I will say only God and the
beneficiary of a righteous act can testify.
You see a righteous act takes into consideration what is at stake. It also accounts for when the act is
performed. It’s the quality of timing
that adds to the value of a righteous act.
Lastly, it’s how it’s done. All
righteous acts vindicates in one way or another. Because of the stakes and the significance of
the timing, the act itself produces honor.
It produces honor for both sides.
In the case of Rahab we see that she was later honored, and
is mentioned in the book of Hebrews “Hall of Faith”, and God, whose word became
indestructible. It also vindicated the
Israelites who spent forty years in the wilderness, and could have easily forgotten
that they were in fact God’s chosen people.
So now we begin to see the many benefits of
righteousness. We see that it assists
God’s plan, it creates honor, and it vindicates (therefore covering a multitude
of sin). This is why righteousness can wiggle itself
out of any grave, and this is why our God and Lord was and is risen.
Remember to go within that you may never go without. The God within you awaits you. Until our paths collide again, I wish you... Peace, Love, Life, and Complete Wholeness in Christ.
In Service,
NaTisha Renee Williams
Featured Blog Series
Comments
Post a Comment