Here’s the point. Before you can ever make a clean and unamended confession of your sin, you have to first begin by confessing your righteousness. It’s not just your sin that separates you from God, your righteousness does as well. Because, when you are convinced you are righteous, you don’t seek the forgiving, rescuing, and restoring mercy that can only be found in Jesus Christ.

What’s actually true is that when I come to the Lord after I’ve blown it, I’ve only one argument to make. It’s not the argument of the difficulty of the environment that I am in. It’s not the argument of the difficult people that I’m near. It’s not the argument of good intentions that were thwarted in some way. No, I only have one argument. It’s right there in the first verse of Psalm 51, as David confesses his sin with Bathsheba. I come to the Lord with only one appeal; his mercy. I’ve no other defense. I’ve no other standing. I’ve no other hope. I can’t escape the reality of my biggest problem; me! So I appeal to the one thing in my life that’s sure and will never fail. I appeal to the one thing that guaranteed not only my acceptance with God, but the hope of new beginnings and fresh starts. I appeal on the basis of the greatest gift I ever have or ever will be given. I leave the courtroom of my own defense, I come out of hiding and I admit who I am. But I’m not afraid, because I’ve been personally and eternally blessed. Because of what Jesus has done, God looks on me with mercy. It’s my only appeal, it’s the source of my hope, it’s my life. Mercy, mercy me!

-Ben

It’s easy for me to try to forget this and try to justify myself.  How does it look?  Often it goes like this: I sin, and I feel bad about my sin, so to make myself feel better, I remind myself of myself – of the good things I’ve done, the things I’ve done that should make me feel good about myself.  I caught myself doing this just now… trying to deflect feelings of shame and guilt by reminding myself how super I am and about all the things I do right.  I try to make myself acceptable – in my own eyes, in others’, and in God’s – by appealing to my own works.

So sinful.  So unbiblical.

My righteousness gets me nowhere. Isaiah 64:6 says, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

Christ’s righteousness is what gets me to heaven.  And it deals with guilt and shame and inadequacy and fear in ways that appealing to my own righteousness was never meant to.

“And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” – 1 Cor 1:30

To deal with sin, we remind ourselves of Jesus, not ourselves.

-Ben

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. – 2 Corinthians 5:21

Jesus took our sin upon Himself, and was punished for it.  He lived a perfect, righteous life, and that is counted to us.  This is called a “double imputation” – our sin is imputed to Christ and His righteousness is mputed to us.  Our sin was punished in Christ, so it doesn’t get punished in us.  His righteousness is given to us, because there’s no way we could live a righteous enough life on our own to get into heaven.

Listen to Isaiah prophesy about the work of Jesus:

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. – Isaiah 53:11

What does this mean for Christians?

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. – Romans 8:1-4

Two things in there:

1. All the righteousness that we will ever need to gain right standing before God is DONE.  You can’t do anything more to earn your salvation, and to try to would be sinful and dishonoring to God.  We are loved, so we obey – not the other way around.  Obedience doesn’t earn us love, it flows out of it.

2. All the condemnation we deserved was put on Jesus, on the Cross, so that we are now NO LONGER under condemnation.  What does that mean?

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died-more than that, who was raised-who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? – Romans 8:31-35

For those who are in Christ Jesus (by faith), the condemnation is GONE and now God is 100% for us.  That God is an infinitely wise, loving, powerful God who know what is good for you FAR BETTER than you ever could.  God is more for you than you could ever be.

How does this ultimately work itself out? What does God know we need most?

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. – 1 Peter 3:18

God is what we need most.  God is the Gospel.  Justification, righteousness, atonement, sanctification, redemption – all of those are good gifts, but not ultimate gifts.  In this case, the Giver is also the Ultimate Gift.

-Ben