/Righteous, You are, Yahweh; and right are Your judgments. You ordered
(to be) righteous, Your witnesses; and great reliability. My zeal makes
me eager; because my oppressors forget Your words. Greatly refined are
Your spoken words; and Your servant loves (them). Insignificant, I am,
and despised; Your appointments I do not forget. Your righteousness is a
righteousness forever; and Your instruction–truth. Distress and hardship
have happened to me; Your commandments are my delight. Righteous are
Your witnesses forever; cause me to understand, and I may live. /
How easy is it to be a Christian? It seems to be a lot of hard work.
1st, the commandments you have to learn & try to obey. It's not as easy
as it seems. Even if you strive to keep all commandments, loving God
with your whole heart & your neighbor as yourself, it still isn't
enough. Remember the rich man who came to Jesus, who was told to sell
his wealth & give it to the poor. He couldn't do it.
So is being a Christian difficult? Actually, no. It's relatively easy as
Jesus reminds us in today's gospel. It comes with a light burden for
you, not a difficult one. It comes with your rest, instead of your hard
work. It comes with the yoke which Jesus provides, one that is not heavy
at all upon your soul. It comes to you whom the Heavenly Father
considers as helpless babies who have to rely completely on another for
survival. Yes, being a Christian is easy for you, because God does all
the work!
Now, that's not to say that *acting* like a Christian is easy. It surely
isn't. Your sinful flesh gives into the many, various temptations to
sin. Your ears perk up at the hope of juicy gossip. You are quick to
disregard what others want, so long as you selfishly satisfy your own
cravings. As for acting like God's children, if it were illegal, others
may be hard pressed to come up with evidence to convict you.
But acting like Christians is not the same as *being* Christians. We all
sin and fall short of God's Own glory in our imperfect actions. But our
failures don't cause us to forfeit being Christians, because it is not
our righteousness that makes us part of God's family. It is Christ's
righteousness, and His alone by which we are judged worthy of eternal
life with our heavenly Father above. And that is the very righteousness
to which the psalmist directs our attention today, the righteousness of
God Himself.
We know our own righteousness is found lacking. Our righteousnesses,
Isaiah reminds us, are but filthy rags. We can't rest on the laurals of
our pitiful attempts at righteousness. Our unrighteousness needs to be
repented of and forgiven. And so God turns us from all attempts at
self-righteousness, reminding us we are helpess as babies to turn away
from our sins. He Himself removes your sin from you through forgiveness,
so that you can seek a righteousness completely outside of yourself.
And so the rightness of the Righteous One, Christ Jesus, blesses you.
For at the + of Calvary, Jesus takes the heavy burden of your sin upon
Himself on that tree, bearing all the guilt, all the punishment, all the
forsakenness you had earned by your UNrighteousness. And in blessed
trade, Jesus gives you His pure & perfect holy righteousness, credited
to you account by faith, to make you worthy of all that He earned for
you: forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.
This blessed exchange first came to you in your baptism. That day,
sinful-unrighteous you was crucified with Jesus and buried with Him into
His death. But Jesus didn't stay dead, and neither did you. A new you,
in whom Christ now dwells, rose up in Jesus that first Easter Sunday as
God's new creation workmanship, to walk in newness of life–in those good
works prepared in advance for you to walk in, righteous works Jesus does
through you for your neighbors to meet there needs.
This marvelous trade of your sins for Jesus' righteousness is also
delivered to you each time you hear that gospel message proclaimed.
Whether in the pulpit or privately with your confessor, your sins are
really forgiven and Christ's righteousness truly given to you when you
hear that Jesus died to become your sins, and you His holiness. When you
hear that you are forgiven for your unrighteousnesses in the Name of
Father, Son & Holy Ghost, you can believe it wholeheartedly!
The splendid swap of Jesus' perfection for your failures also comes to
you in the Lord's Supper. You eat His body & drink His blood which paid
the price for your salvation at Calvary. There He was given and shed for
you for the forgiveness of your sins. And He doesn't leave your heart
empty after cleansing it with His blood, but fills it with His Own
holiness, His Own perfection, His Own righteousness. He does all the
work to be righteous for you & to make you righteous by His grace.
John C. Drosendahl, Pastor
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