Our Righteousness

Spring is coming!

Beautiful weather we are having! I just love this time of the year! I love the warmer weather, the sun shining and soon we will see bulbs on bushes and trees and wild flowers growing in our yard. Then my wonderful husband will mow them all down, that doesn’t make me happy.

II. Praise God for the Glory of His Creation!

What of the earth do we praise God for? The flowers! The Mountains! The Trees! I love standing in the lookout at Beersheba camp and see the majestic creation of our God. As you walk to the lookout, they have Psalm 121:1-2 written in a circle in the concrete layout.

Psalm 121:1–2 NRSV

I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

God made this world and every color and intricate design therein. He made us, each cell and moving part. He puts so much care into His creation. He put so much care into you! To God, you are perfect. However, some of the things we do and think do not reflect God’s perfect creation.

III. God’s Perfect Creation

Along with creating this perfect world, God created perfect order. Yet, we have wondered away from this perfect order. Therefore, God established rules to set as boundaries to pull us back into His perfect order. Some of those rules seem hard to different ones of us. We all have our temptations and trials. We all fall away from the perfect order every once in a while. Over time all of us have damaged God’s perfect world. Just as pollution contaminates the earth, sin contaminates our soul. We are called to be good stewards of God’s creation, yet so many times humankind has done things to destroy it.

IV. God’s Perfect Precepts

But again this is why God created laws. Not to control us or tell humankind just how much we mess up. The whole of human race is broken yet God has given us precepts.

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church Precept

precept (Lat. praeceptum). In moral theology, a matter of obligation, as contrasted with a ‘counsel’, which is only a matter of persuasion.

In layman's terms, precepts are guidance from God on how we should act, speak, basically live. It is God persuading us back to His perfect order. Shouldn’t we want to live in God’s perfect order? He created the world, He created us; it seems that God would know how things are supposed to work. Isn’t that wonderful! We are told exactly how things are suppose to work. We are given guidance on living into the righteousness in which we were created. This is way David says here in the psalm that God’s laws are just as beautiful as anything He created. The laws of God are like the sun which shines bright in the sky. Even on cloudy days, the sun is still there. Even when it is night here, it is day elsewhere. The laws of God are as sure as the sun, and the entire universe! If God took such care into making each detail from the atom to the galaxies, think about the care that God has in creating and establishing His precepts.

The broken parts of the world, the Enemy of God’s creation, wants us to stay broken. Satan wants this world to be broken. That is exactly what Satan will inherit is a broken world. That is why we struggle with sin and the fight for righteousness seems to get harder and harder. Thank God that He sent us help! For God sent His Son who who inherits the goodness of God.

V. Our Savior and our Helper

Our triune God is our Creator, Redeemer, and Helper. Jesus came to break the bonds of sin and death fulfilling all of God’s precepts and establishing order to this world. If we turn to Jesus, letting go of the broken pieces that are not apart of God’s creation, we become a new creation where we can be holy like our Heavenly Father intended us to be holy. When living into this newness of life, this transforming of our minds gets hard, we have His Holy Spirit to give us counsel and aid.

But here is the thing. We have to want the help. We ask to be made new. God has given us the free will to live in this broken world which seems like the easier choice when you try to do it on your own. But if we instead say the prayer daily as Christ followers that we read in verse 14, God will guide our thoughts and guard our heart.

In the name of the Creator, our Redeemer, and Counselor. Amen.