GOD OF MY RIGHTEOUSNESS

"Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer" (Psalm 4:1).

When I enter the Savior's presence, I often feel like Peter who once said, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" (Luke 5:8) Spending time with Jesus opens my eyes and I see all too well how weak I am. I see how many times I've messed up and wandered away from Jesus. How I long to be free from this cycle of sin! But there's nothing I can do to clean up my life. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!" (Job 14:4) Only Jesus--blessed Jesus!

I come to Him with my stained heart, broken by sin, and I place it in His hands. And like the Father of the prodigal son, He welcomes me into His loving arms with such forgiveness that my heart is changed. So wonderfully changed! He removes my stony heart that's so riddled with sin and gives me a new heart (Ezekiel 11:19). The Holy Spirit fills me up and I become God's new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). 

I belong to Jesus and He belongs to me.  And He justifies me freely "by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24). Then the Savior takes His own spotless robe and wraps it around me as I kneel before Him in faith and repentance. His perfect life stands in place of my own and I'm covered with His righteousness.

"Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us meet to appear in God's presence. The covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put on every repenting, believing soul. "I counsel thee," He says, "to buy of me...white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear." Revelation 3:18" (Christ's Object Lessons, pg. 311).

His righteousness doesn't cover up my sin, for "the righteousness of Christ will not cover one cherished sin" (ibid, pg. 316). But when I turn and confess those sins, He will "wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin" (Psalm 51:2). I can stand in His presence "faultless and with exceeding joy" (Jude 24)! I praise the God of my righteousness for the blessing of justification--that He treats me just as if I had never sinned! 

But there is more--so much more! For "when we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged with His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness" (Christ's Object Lessons, pg. 311). 

Or as Paul says, "you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:11). I am washed when I confess my sin and justified when God forgives me. And a justified heart is so in love with Jesus that it longs to be like Him in every possible way. So as I walk together with Christ, I am soaking in His Word and following His example. I am breathing in His Spirit and obeying His every word. And God is my righteousness as we walk along together. And by His amazing grace, His righteousness is now seen in me. 

Come in, Lord Jesus, and cover me with Your spotless robe that I may live for You. Only for You!