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Thursday, February 7, 2019

Reconciled Righteous


I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
—1 Corinthians 2:2 (NLT)


There is only one truth—that God loved the world so much He sent His son, Jesus, to save it and not condemn it so the world through His unconditional love might be saved. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:1 about himself that “I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.” Paul knew one thing to be crucial. He came to tell the Corinthians of Jesus Christ and the great exchange that took place at the cross. Jesus Christ, innocent of anger, hatred, greed, selfishness, jealousy, wickedness, blameless of all sin—without hesitation took all the sin of the world into himself at the cross. He died not only to pay for the sin of the world’s past, but sin for all time—past, present, and future. His love on the cross reconciled man to God. 

For this reconciliation to be real for us, we ask Jesus into our hearts. And when we do, His grace on Calvary changes everything! Where once our sin stood in the way of approaching God, now nothing is in our way. We are free to run to God. We don't have to live in fear of failure or fear of separation. Nothing can separate us from His love. When Jesus took our sins at the cross, He gave us His righteousness. That is the only reason we can approach God. God now sees us as righteous through the finished work of His son on Calvary. 

When no sin separates us from God because of Jesus, we have peace with God and peace in our lives. “Knowing we are righteous is the key to hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit,” Tricia Gunn writes in Unveiling Jesus. “This is a good litmus test to use when thoughts come. Reject any thoughts that do not come with His peace. Even when the Lord corrects us, it is always with a sense of love and freedom, never with shame and guilt and fear.”  

The Lord doesn't beat us over the head when we fail. He sees us through the finished work of the cross—through the eyes of grace. His righteousness convicts us with hope. Knowing Jesus, crucified, convicts us. It convinces us in our conscience, and that hurts. We repent realizing He loves us in spite of everything. When we resolve to believe the incredible life-changing gift Jesus imparted to us at Calvary, we allow grace to change what condemnation never can.


© 2019 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2019/02/reconciled-righteous.html



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