Over the course of the week we've had opportunity to reflect on the Lord our Righteousness. Righteousness is on one hand a gift God the Father bestows on us through the work of Jesus Christ applied to us through the Holy Spirit. This is the gift that allows us to walk and talk with God. While God, through the lens of Jesus Christ, sees us as sinless, we still sin. So this gift is not only a tremendous blessing, it is also a high calling. Peter repeats the call so prevalent in Leviticus - "Be holy as I am holy" (19:2 and I Peter 1:16). This call to living in a way set apart from others is a call to live righteously. Now, you and I in our own power cannot do this. The Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 32 puts it this way: "Christ by His Spirit is renewing us to be like Himself, so that in all our living we may show that we are thankful to God for all He has done for us, and so that He may be praised through us. And we also do good so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ." We are dependent on the Holy Spirit to do good. We are dependent on God's work... God's relationship with us for any and every hint of righteousness. It's all from Him. God gets the glory! It is the Lord, He is our righteousness! May we continue to give thanks... and continue to draw close to Him, inviting the Spirit's ongoing work in and through us for God's glory!


Pastor Kevin