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MEDITATION:

Written by Tim Challies, a contemporary Christian author.

First and foremost, righteousness is an attribute of God. The fact that God is righteous means that he “always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the final standard of what is right” (Wayne Grudem). Righteousness is a statement about God’s moral nature and it means that he never does wrong. More than that, God’s righteousness means that he cannot do wrong.

For man, righteousness is a measure of morality just as it is for God, but man has no part in defining what is right. Man is righteous only as much as his morality, expressed in desires, thoughts, and deeds, conforms to that of God’s. Where he differs with God, he is unrighteous. Scripture is clear that because Adam’s sin has corrupted every man, “none is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10; cf. Psalm 14:1-3). But it is also clear that Jesus Christ lived a perfectly righteous life and died for our sins in order to free us from our punishment and credit us with his own righteousness–the righteousness of God. This is the gospel.

PRAYER:

Written by Clement of Alexandria (150-215), a Christian theologian and philosopher.

O Educator, be gracious to your children, O Educator, Father, Guide of Israel, Son and Father, both one, Lord. Give to us, who follow your command, to fulfill the likeness of your image, and to see, according to our strength, the God who is both a good God and a Judge who is not harsh. Bestow all things on us who dwell in your peace, who have been placed in your city, who sail the sea of sin unruffled, that we may be made tranquil and supported by the Holy Spirit, the unutterable Wisdom, by night and day, unto the perfect day, to sing eternal thanksgiving to the one only Father and Son, Son and Father, Educator and Teacher with the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Andrew Murray (1828-1917), a South African writer, teacher, and pastor.

“Through the obedience of the One shall the many be made righteous.” These words tell us what we owe to Christ. As in Adam, we were made sinners, in Christ we are made righteous. The words tell us, too, to what in Christ it is we owe our righteousness. As Adam’s disobedience made us sinners, the obedience of Christ makes us righteous. To the obedience of Christ we owe everything. Among the treasures of our inheritance in Christ this is one of the richest…You are familiar with the blessed truth of justification by faith…The object of Christ’s life of obedience was threefold: 1) As an example, to show us what true obedience was. 2) As our surety, by His obedience to fulfill all righteousness for us. 3) As our Head, to prepare a new and obedient nature to impart to us. So He died, too, to show us that His obedience means a readiness to obey to the uttermost, to die for God; that it means the vicarious endurance and atonement of the guilt of our disobedience; that it means a death to sin as an entrance to the life of God for Him and for us.

PRAYER:

Written by Paul H. Ashby, a contemporary English author, chaplain, and minister.

Your salvation, Lord God, may be beyond our full comprehension, but it is real and true. So we praise You for Your glorious love and for making it real through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ! May we seek to know as much about this as possible; but more than that, may we receive its truth and live by it, throughout our lives: AMEN.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Philip Wijaya, contemporary Christian student and author. This is an excerpt from his work “What is Righteousness?”

As we live in a world where people tend to believe that their ways are right in their own eyes, we find it is hard for many to accept the absolute standard of righteousness. True or false becomes relative, and many believe they can do whatever they think or feel is right…Righteousness, in human standards, is defined as “the quality of being morally true or justifiable.” The justification is made according to the conformity of behavior with the regulation (or constitution, in the context of a nation). In its deeper spiritual meaning, righteousness is the quality of being right in the eyes of God, including character (nature), conscience (attitude), conduct (action), and command (word). Righteousness is, therefore, based upon God’s standard because He is the ultimate Lawgiver …  Righteousness is a God-centered attribute: no man can attain it through his own efforts apart from His ordinance. We, humans, are inclined to follow our own paths and use our own ways, instead of God’s. (Notice that this selfish desire for independence from God is in our nature, we need nobody to teach us that, but we always need the discipline to remain faithful in the path of God). Righteousness is not being legalistic — it is not about our achievements in “God’s school of law.” Righteousness is a wonderful gift from God to humanity through Christ’s act of love… In Christ, we are forever loved by God unconditionally. We are accepted and justified not by our own goodness but by the perfect love of God. This grace and mercy of God does not mean a license to sin (of course!). Having been so tremendously loved by the Heavenly Father, we are to express our gratefulness by continuously living in His righteousness. To God be the glory! 

PRAYER:

From the Sarum Primer, a book of prayers and Christian worship resources from the 1500s, collected at the Salisbury Cathedral.

Almighty God,

fountain of eternal light,

send forth your truth into our hearts,

and pour on us the glory of your brightness;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by InTouch Ministries, founded by Dr. Charles Stanley.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made a statement His listeners probably found shocking—He said they wouldn’t enter the kingdom of heaven unless their righteousness surpassed that of the scribes and Pharisees. The Pharisees were considered the definition of righteous: They were the religious elite, who often elevated their own self-worth and standing in the community. Frankly, the righteousness they projected would have seemed tough to surpass. Thankfully, Jesus wasn’t saying to beat them at their own game; He was pointing to a different standard altogether. Godliness isn’t attained by pursuing perfection, dressing a certain way, or by holding positions of influence in society. Rather, we become righteous by making oneness with God the focus and substance of our daily life and boasting only in Him. (See 1 Corinthians 1:18-31).

PRAYER:

Written by Oscar Romero (1917-1980). the 4th archbishop of San Salvador. He spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations, and torture.

It helps, now and then, to step back, and take the long view. The Kingdom of Heaven is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. This is what we are about. We will plant the seeds that one day will grow, We water seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but everything is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are the workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future of our own. May that future be filled with grace, peace, and hope. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Amy Carroll, a contemporary Christian author. This is an excerpt from her devotion “Being Right Doesn’t Mean I’m Righteous.”

God is filling me with a simple prayer: Lord, please make me completely righteous and not a bit self-righteous. The word righteous means, “acting in accord with divine and moral law, free from guilt or sin” according to Webster. But being righteous and looking righteous are two different things. Looking righteous is something I’ve mastered. I know how to follow the rules, play the game and fit into the church crowd. Maybe you’re like me and are wired to work hard to get things done “right.” I like to please my peers and check items off my to-do list. Often it wins me the approval I crave. I get pats on the back, and it all looks good on the outside. But on the inside — in the quiet moments — I can find myself exhausted. Defeated. Numb. Those feelings let me know I’ve crossed from being righteous through Christ into trying to earn righteousness myself. Sometimes my self-righteousness leaks out and reveals its ugliness through judgmental thoughts and attitudes towards others. That’s when I find myself looking down my nose at those struggling while thinking I have it together or snapping with impatience when someone delays my next task. … To maintain the right heart, God asks us to keep returning to our first love with Him. To rediscover the newness, lightness and joy we felt at first. He urges us to constantly rekindle passion for Him, which will deepen our love for Him and others. The beautiful part is God doesn’t call us to love without Him setting the ultimate example. His love is “wide and long and high and deep” (Ephesians 3:18, NIV), and it surpasses our thoughts and the works done in our own strength. Pursuing righteousness solely through good works is an empty endeavor, always leaving us impossibly short of the goal. Returning to our first love ensures full righteousness as we follow Jesus, for He is our righteousness… True righteousness creates more love for God and others. It’s a beautiful cycle, and it’s a goal that transforms us.

PRAYER:

John Chrysostom (AD 347-407), theologian and archbishop of Constantinople.

O my all-merciful God and Lord, Jesus Christ, full of pity: through Your great love You came down and became incarnate in order to save everyone. O Savior, I ask You to save me by Your grace! If You save anyone because of their works, that would not be grace but only reward of duty, but You are compassionate and full of mercy! You said, O my Christ, “Whoever believes in Me shall live and never die.” If then, faith in You saves the lost, then save me, O my God and Creator, for I believe. Let faith and not my unworthy works be counted to me, O my God, for You will find no works which could account me righteous. O Lord, from now on let me love You as intensely as I have loved sin, and work for You as hard as I once worked for the evil one. I promise that I will work to do Your will, my Lord and God, Jesus Christ, all the days of my life and forevermore.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Ray Stedman (1917-1992), an evangelical Christian pastor and author. This reflection is an excerpt from his devotional “The Breastplate of Righteousness.”

Christ is the ground of your righteous standing before God, your acceptance before Him. If you are wearing that breastplate, you can rest secure that your heart, your emotions, are securely guarded and adequately protected against attack. Christians often feel they lack assurance. They feel unworthy of God. They feel they are a failure in the Christian life and that God is certain to reject them, that He is no longer interested in them. They are so aware of their failures and shortcomings. Growth has been so slow. The first joy of faith has faded, and they feel God is angry with them or that He is far off somewhere. There is a constant sense of guilt. Their conscience is always stabbing them, making them unhappy. They feel God blames them. This is simply a satanic attack.  How do you answer an attack like this? You are to remember that you have put on the breastplate of righteousness. In other words, you do not stand on your own merits. You never did. You never had anything worthwhile in yourself to offer to God. You gave all that up when you came to Christ. You quit trying to be good enough to please God. You came on His merits. You came on the ground of His imputed righteousness—that which He gives to you. You began your Christian life like that, and there is no change now. You are still standing before God on that basis. What a ground for discouragement! How easy it would have been for the apostle Paul to say to himself, What’s the use? Here I am working my fingers to the bone, making tents and trying to preach the gospel to these people and look at the blessing God has brought them, but they don’t care. They hurl recriminations back into my face. Why try anymore? But that is not what he does. Instead, he says, But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not without effect (1 Corinthians 15: l0a). There he is using the breastplate of righteousness. I don’t care, he says, what I have been; I don’t defend what I am. I simply say to you, by the grace of God, I am what I am. What I am is what Christ has made me. I’m not standing on my righteousness; I’m standing on His. I am accepted by grace, and my personal situation does not make any difference at all. So his heart was kept from discouragement.

PRAYER:

From the Leonine Sacramentary, the earliest surviving collection of Roman Mass formularies and ordination prayers from the early 7th century.

O Lord,

help us always

to seek your kingdom and righteousness.

Give us all other things we need as well;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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MEDITATION:

Written by John Van Schepen, a contemporary retired pastor and author.  

Children, what would you say if I asked you to throw your most treasured toy into the garbage? Young people, as you look to the future, imagine being asked to forget about one of your main goals, such as marriage or a college education. And what about the things you have right now? Is your most prized possession a car? A career? Your stock portfolio? Could you consider them rubbish right now? Really?

Paul was one of the most successful young men in his community. He had the right credentials by birth, learning, and life experience. Yet he was willing to consider it all rubbish. Why? Certainly not for an easier life or for fame and glory. He knew that letting go was the only way to receive God’s gift of righteousness through faith in Christ.

Are you holding on to something that is preventing you from stretching out your hand to receive God’s gift of righteousness by faith? This gift includes the forgiveness of sins, a new life of service to the Lord, and eternal life. Everything you have or might like to have pales in comparison to the gift of God’s righteousness through faith in Christ. Receive him as Lord, and the gift of his righteousness will be yours.

PRAYER:

Written by William Barclay (1907-1978), a Scottish author, radio and television presenter, professor of Divinity, and minister in the Church of Scotland.

Grant, O God, that we may never lose the way through our self-will, and so end up in the far countries of the soul; that we may never abandon the struggle, but that we may endure to the end, and so be saved; that we may never drop out of the race, but that we may ever press forward to the goal of our high calling; that we may never choose the cheap and passing things, and let go the precious things that last forever. that we may never take the easy way, and so leave the right way; that we may never forget that sweat is the price of all things, and that without the cross, there cannot be the crown. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Erwin Lutzer, a contemporary pastor, teacher, and author.   This reflection is excerpted from his writing “The Gospel of Righteousness.”

The question before us, the question that goes to the heart of what we call the Gospel, is: How do we become as perfect as God? The great reformer Martin Luther grappled with the same question: How can a sinner receive the favor of a holy God who is just and hates sin? … To understand the Gospel, let’s begin by considering the phrase the righteousness of God, which troubled Luther greatly. If God were not so righteous, we would have a better chance to win His favor, but it is His righteousness that stands as a barrier between us and Him.

We can all identify with Luther’s dilemma. If God were not so holy—if He were more like us—then we might be able to meet His requirements. But the Bible, and even our own conscience, tells us that we are sinners, and we can’t reach the high standard of God’s righteousness by our own efforts. But Luther learned, as we must, that righteousness is not just an attribute of God, but there is also a “righteousness from God,” which is a gift given to those who believe on Christ. To put it plainly, in Christ God meets His own requirements for us. We have no righteousness of our own, so God gives us His own righteousness as a free gift. In other words, God demands righteousness, and through the death and resurrection of Christ, God supplies the righteousness that He demands! The blood of Christ covers our sins so that we can come into the presence of God. And when it is time for us to die, we are welcomed into Heaven as if we were Jesus because we are saved solely on the perfections of His merit and grace.

PRAYER:

Written by Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109), a Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and Christian theologian. He served as the archbishop of Canterbury from 1093-1109.

O Lord Jesus Christ, our redemption and our salvation, we praise you and give you thanks. Though we are unworthy of your benefits,  and cannot offer to you the devotion you deserve,  let your loving-kindness complete whatever our weakness tries to do.

Before you, O Lord, we lay all our desires, and whatever our heart rightly wishes, it is because of your gift. Help us love you as you command. Do not let your gift be unfruitful in us. Complete what you have begun, give what you have made us desire, convert our lukewarmness into fervent love of you; for the glory of your holy name. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Dr. Bill Bright (1921-2003), an American evangelist, author, and founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. This is an excerpt from his book “The Joy of Trusting God.”

God’s holiness and His righteousness are not the same. Holiness is a condition of purity or freedom from sin. God’s righteousness is the quality or attribute of God that causes Him to act in accordance with His own nature, will, and law. In other words, holiness describes God’s nature; righteousness describes how God acts according to His holiness. God’s laws are holy because they come from His nature. God’s standards for enforcing His laws are always righteous.

Everything God does is perfectly right in every way…For God, righteousness is not an external standard that He must adhere to; righteousness is part of His very nature. It is impossible for God to do anything wrong. He has never made a wrong determination. He has never had to reverse a decision when He learned more facts. God does not struggle with right and wrong…His laws reflect His own righteous nature and the moral perfection of His character. Cultural bias, a lack of knowledge, or any other factor does not alter His rulings…His laws lay out the responsibilities for which God holds us accountable. They serve as a yardstick by which God measures our righteousness. When His laws are broken, He must punish anyone who defies His righteous laws…His righteous laws focus on standards for acting rightly toward one another…We cannot live righteously without the enabling of the Holy Spirit, and His power is released through our faith.

PRAYER:

The prayer today is from a collect (short general prayer used in Christian liturgy) from the 6^th century.

O Sun of Righteousness and the Light Eternal,

you give gladness to all things!

Shine on us both now and forever

that we may walk always in the light of your presence;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Max Lucado, a contemporary pastor and author.  This is from his devotional book “Everyday Blessings.”

The path of righteousness is a narrow, winding trail up a steep hill. At the top of the hill is a cross. At the base of the cross are bags. Countless bags full of innumerable sins. Calvary is the compost pile of guilt. Would you like to leave yours there as well?

PRAYER:

Written by Clement of Rome (?-99), considered to be the first Apostolic Father of the church, one of the three chief ones together with Polycarp and Ignatius of Antioch. He was the second or third bishop of Rome, after Peter.

You, Lord, through your works have revealed the everlasting structure of the world. You, Lord, created the earth. You are faithful throughout all generations, righteous in your judgments, marvelous in strength and majesty, wise in creating and prudent in establishing what exists, good in all that is observed and faithful to those who trust in you, merciful and compassionate; forgive us our sins and our injustices, our transgressions and our shortcomings.

Do not take into account every sin of your servants, but cleanse us with the cleansing of your truth, and “direct our steps to walk in holiness and righteousness and purity of heart,” and “to do what is good and pleasing in your sight” and in the sight of our rulers. Yes, Lord, “let your face shine upon us” in peace “for our good,” that we may be sheltered “by your mighty hand” and delivered from every sin “by your uplifted arm”; deliver us as well from those who hate us unjustly.

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