My soul clings to you,Your right hand upholds me.
The cross of Christ must become bigger
— Our Hope —
God calls us to live in righteousness. The scripture clearly says that as a Christian you must pursue righteousness. I am sure we can all think of several scriptures which show this. But now I’m telling you, that you can’t be Righteous. So where is our hope?
— The Gospel
In Romans 7, Paul, like my 3-year-old niece, knows that if he is honest, he can’t say, “Yes, I will do good”. Paul is very real and candid here. He talks about his struggle with sin and how although he would like to do what is good, he doesn’t. In this desperation he cries out “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” . . . But he is not without hope. . .. His answer is, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Paul said that he was the worst of all sinners. But he understood that grace touched every part of who he was, it had to or he wouldn’t have had hope. He understood that God came to save sinners. The cross had become bigger for him. Paul was honest and real; he had to have Jesus . . . “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. . .. may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
Paul wrote in Galatians, “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh?” The Bible says, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
You see, we cannot look at the work of the Gospel as something just done in our past when we were saved, for we are just as much in need of it, now, as Christians as when we first believed, both to realize our forgiveness in God and to enable us to pursue righteousness. Hear this; we never ever outgrow our need for the Gospel. The Gospel not only obtains our salvation, it also produces our sanctification, and secures our glorification.
And this faith looks to a person – Jesus Christ our Lord, the author and perfecter of our faith. This is the Gospel. Jesus is the Gospel. He alone saves us from sin. He is our only hope. Therefore, there is no boasting; only praise, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Who do you depend on for righteousness?
Is your walk in sanctification by faith or works?
Additional readings: Psalm 73:26, Philippians 3:9, Romans 8
