In Our Flesh

1Corinthians 1:27-30 - But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption...

Somehow my mind will not let go of a thought and it seems as I peruse this and that or meditate here and there, I have been led to areas too great to let just sit in my memory. As this blog sat a couple of days, some of these same words were spoken or prayed in church today.

Righteousness. I've written about it before. I've written that we cannot attain it by anything we do (in our flesh) but only by what Christ did for us. Christ alone. In His flesh. Not our works, not our good deeds. No outward thing can gain this righteousness. Not countless hours in His Word, or studying scriptures or even pounding the pavement for the Lord, although we are called to do these things...and often desire to do them when we have come to Christ. It is something between myself and Jesus. And it starts with a relationship with Him. In fact, as stated above, He uses the foolish, weak and base. He will not use one who believes he is smarter, wiser, mightier than most. He does not use self seekers. He uses the sin filled individual who at one time was sure he needed Someone greater in his life to get him through. God looks to those and uses those who have bowed a knee and a heart to Christ.

No work can ever be good enough. If we think we can buy our way to heaven, same thing. How much is enough? What amount of works are enough? Are we ever sure enough? We are told in Romans there is none righteous, not one. If we believe we've done enough, we fool ourselves...and wrongfully put ourselves on the same level as Christ...and if we believe that, we have sinned in our own pride. No works.....none, nada, zip, zero. Period. We will always fall short of the glory of God! However, in Christ we long to do good works, for Him.

Righteousness is looked upon as arrogance to those who do not understand what Christ has done...and those who have not received His gift of salvation...as just that, a gift, undeserved...given to any who understand it is not about works. The works is what trips us up. We must do good to get ahead, step up that ladder to success, be recognized as "something." This is not God's view. Remember, He chooses the foolish, weak and base...that man cannot say it was something they did (in the flesh) to achieve their salvation. It is the work of Christ on the cross alone that redeems us, makes us righteous. His flesh torn, bruised, pierced, bloody. What He had to go through. And we must do no more than admit this, believe it and trust it. Nothing I've done, but all You've done, O God.

A simple concept, but difficult if we cannot put our pride, or self, aside for Someone else...for Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus can wash away our guilty stains. How absolutely humbling and so against the nature of man. But true.

There is a book called The Pilgrim's Progress written by an early Christian writer and preacher named John Bunyan. He maintained that he was only a Christian, of no denomination. He struggled with this righteousness. He often felt he lacked in righteousness. He could only see his sin and the things he believed he could not attain to satisfy God. Could he ever be considered righteous? Was he truly saved? And as he dwelt on this issue he wrote:

But one day, as I was passing into the field, and that too with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, “Your righteousness is in heaven”; and methought with it all, I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God’s right hand; there, I say, as my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say to me that He wants my righteousness, for that was just before Him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also fled away; so that, from that time, those dreadful Scriptures of God left off to trouble me; now went I also home rejoicing, for the grace and love of God. So when I came home, I looked to see if I could find that sentence, “Your righteousness is in heaven,” but could not find such a saying; wherefore my heart began to sink again, only that was brought to my remembrance, “He is made unto us of God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption” (1Cor. 1:30). By this word I saw the other sentence true.

For by this Scripture I saw that the man Christ Jesus, as He is distinct from us, as touching His bodily presence, so He is our righteousness and sanctification before God. Here therefore I lived, for some time, very sweetly at peace with God through Christ. Oh! methought, Christ, Christ! There was nothing but Christ that was before my eyes: I was not now only for looking upon this and the other benefits of Christ apart, as of His blood, burial, or His resurrection, but considering Him as a whole Christ, as He in whom all these, and all other virtues, relations, offices, and operations met together, and that He sat on the right hand of God in heaven.

All we need to do is let go of our own lofty ideas of righteousness and let Jesus do the work in us. This happens when we come to a place of relationship with Christ. He has done it all. The Son seated at the Father's right hand. The Mediator between God and man. Receive Christ, receive, righteousness. God cannot see in us what we see in us because He sees us through His Son. And there is nothing unrighteous about Jesus. Put on Christ. Put on the robes of righteousness...and don't allow the enemy to say otherwise. Don't allow doubts because of finicky feelings be our downfall. Look straight into the eyes of the Lord and know He has done it all...that no FLESH should glory in His presence. Not us, but He alone. Praise Him! He is the One who said, "It is finished" before HE died.

Romans 8:1-4 - There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

WHO ARE IN ...THROUGH THE FLESH...IN THE FLESH...ACCORDING TO THE FLESH