The Lord Is Our Righteousness

The Lord is Our Righteousness                               

Jeremiah 33:14-16

     When we observe the beginning of a new calendar year, one of the things that you hear a lot about is making new years resolutions.  You think about something in your life that needs improvement and you resolve that in the new year you will change and you will leave behind the old bad habits and adopt some new behaviors that will make you happier, healthier and maybe even wealthier.  All it takes is a little will power and discipline and you will be successful.  That’s the problem.  You have to rely on your will power and your self-discipline.  The results usually aren’t very good.  Most new years resolutions are broken in the first few days. 

     Today is the beginning of a new church year.  What better time to make some new church year resolutions!  Happy, healthy and wealthy are probably not exactly the things you might think of as end results of your new church year resolutions.   You might be thinking though that you would want to increase your time spent in Bible Study, increase your financial support of the church’s ministry, increase your time spent in service to the Lord or increase the time that you spend in volunteer work in the church or the community.   

     Just as you might have trouble keeping your regular new years resolutions, you might also have difficulty keeping your new church year resolutions.  There are several differences between the two though.  Most of the time, new years resolutions are motivated by your own self-interest.  You want to improve the quality of your life so that you can be happy, healthy or wealthy.  The only thing that stands in your way is your own self discipline.  In the case of new church year resolutions, the roadblocks to successful accomplishment of your goals are more than your lack of self-discipline.  You also have the influence of the devil and the world that don’t want to see you grow in your relationship to God.  Add to that your sinful nature and you have three formidable enemies.  

     The themes for the beginning of the church year provide you not only encouragement but also the spiritual strength that you need in order to really accomplish your goals.  You are reminded that Jesus came into the world to carry out God’s plan for your salvation and you are also reminded that Jesus will come again.  It is there that you find the Gospel motivation for any changes in your spiritual lives.  A Gospel motivation is much stronger than simply self-determination because the Gospel comes with the power of the Holy Spirit, the only power that will help you to make the changes needed to improve your spiritual walk. 

     This is now the Advent season.  The word Advent tells us that someone or something is coming to you.  It doesn’t take long for you to figure out that it is Jesus, the Promised One, the Messiah, who is coming to you.  All three of our readings for today mention the coming of Jesus.  The Gospel lesson speaks of Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem.  It may seem a little strange to hear a Palm Sunday event on the first Sunday in Advent but the purpose of having that reading now is to remind you that when Jesus came into Jerusalem, He came as a humble servant, who was willing to give His live for the sins of the world.  Through His suffering and death and resurrection, He won for us the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in heaven.  That was His purpose in coming to the earth from His throne in heaven.  It was God’s great love that caused Him to send His only Son into our world to be our substitute under the Law and then give Himself as the sacrifice for our sins. 

     The Epistle lesson then speaks of the time when Jesus will come again.  Through the power the He gives we are prepared for the time when Jesus will come again.  God gives us the strength to increase and abound in love for one another and for all as we wait.  By faith, our hearts are established blameless in holiness.  This is all according to God’s plan which was made know through His prophets of old.  That is where the Old Testament lesson comes in for today.  Through Jeremiah the prophet, the Lord tells us that the days are coming when He will fulfill the promises made to the house of Israel and Judah.  The righteous Branch will spring up for David.  One of the memorable lines in the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke echoes this statement.  Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem for the census because they were of the house and lineage of David.  When the Child was born, it fulfilled this and many other prophecies regarding the Messiah. 

     This passage from Jeremiah also says that the name associated with this blessing would be “The Lord is our righteousness.”  That gets right to the heart of why Jesus came into the world.  It also gets to the heart of why we will be able to stand before God when Jesus comes again.  It will not be our own righteousness that will make us acceptable to God.  It will be rather the righteousness of Jesus that covers us.   

     For many people, that element of the Christian message is hard to accept.  The sinful nature that lurks within us does not want to acknowledge that we need help in order to stand before God.  That voice within you would rather say, “I can manage just fine by myself, thank you.  I don’t need anyone’s help.  I have lived a good life.  I have given of myself to help others.  I think I have done quite enough to earn my place in heaven.”  The truth from God’s word is that you can never do enough to earn your place in heaven.  God’s Word of Law, if you listen to it, will point out that you have sinned over and over again.  You are not exempt from the blanket condemnation that
says plainly, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  You have the same need for rescue that is common to all mankind.  You need to hear once again the wonderful words, “The Lord is our righteousness.”  It is His righteousness that stands in your place. 

     He kept God’s Law perfectly for you.  What you could not do, Jesus did for you.  We call that His active obedience.  He did all that God required.  He then allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross as the punishment for your sins.  We call that His passive obedience.  He allowed it to happen.  He had all power in heaven and in earth and if He wanted to stop the whole process, He could.  But in His great love for the Father and for you, He allowed the soldiers to hammer the nails into His flesh.  You needed that kind of obedience from One who is able credit that obedience to you.  His suffering and death was for your benefit and eternal blessing.

     That is the motivation that you need in order to be able to make your new church year resolutions.  In response to God’s great love, demonstrated in Jesus’ coming into the world and in eager anticipation of the time when He will come again, you can resolve to grow in your love for the Lord.  You will want to be in His Word to receive the blessings of the Holy Spirit who works through the Word.  You will want to show your love and appreciation for the Lord’s righteousness that has been given to you by generously supporting the work of the Lord through His church.  When the Lord has given you His only Son to suffer and die for you, can you be anything else but generous in your response?  God not only gives you the blessings in the first place, He also gives you the motivation to use those blessings in a way that will give glory and honor to Him alone in everything that you do. 

     What will your new church year resolutions be?  Will they reflect your appreciation of God’s love?  Will they be a response to Jesus’ first coming?  Will they demonstrate an eager anticipation of His second coming?  Paul’s prayer in the Epistle Lesson is a good prayer for us to pray for one another.  “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.”  Amen.

December 2, 2012