Too
often we have preached a gospel of eternal, abundant life, but not a gospel of
offence to a righteous, holy God. The promise of eternal life without
understanding the offense of sin is no gospel at all. It is just a benevolent
Santa Claus who winks at our indiscretions and lavishes us with gifts because
we’re such great kids. But God is a holy, righteous, just and gracious creator
before whom we stand in dirty rags that we call righteousness.
Ezra
was written to remind those who had come back from captivity that they are a
covenant people. Ezra reminds them of God’s grace in allowing them to come back
to a land that He had promised them but which they did not deserve. Ezra reminds
them of how God moved the heart of the king, how God provided and protected
them, and how God enabled them to rebuild the temple and restart temple
worship. As a result of this Hesed (covenant love and mercy) of God for
his people, Israel is called to a life of covenant love toward God. They are
called to righteousness.
Under
the New Covenant we as believers are also called to a life of righteousness. So,
in our own struggle to live out the righteousness of God what principles can we
glean from Ezra 9 to help us keep our focus and walk rightly before God? Over
the next two weeks I intend to spend some time in Ezra 9. There are four
principles that we find in this chapter regarding how to deal with sin in our
lives both individually and corporately as a church. In short we need to look
back, look down, look out and finally look up.
It
is time we stop looking at God as Santa Claus. He is not there to keep us
happy. He is a righteous and holy God. As such he is a benevolent and just God who
sent his own son to the cross that he might offer us the gift of righteousness
through faith. By faith we enter into this New Covenant in which he promised
new hearts. By faith his Holy Spirit dwells within each believer teaching us
and empowering us to live lives of holiness. It is time we stop sitting by the
gate of God’s Kingdom pleading for handouts, and step into the new identity we
have in Christ by grace through faith. It is a new identity of holiness and
righteous living.
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