REFLECTIONS ON JEREMIAH 23:6 PT4

Can you think of some of the sweetest music you have ever heard? Oh, the feelings of delight and peace that fill your heart. Kinda makes you want to here it over and again doesn't it. What about that prettiest of colors or most pleasant of tastes and scents? How beautiful and enjoyable;how relaxing.

Yet, if we rolled all of these experiences into one, I wonder how it would compare to the delight God the Father experiences when He considers His Son..." Behold!My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom my soul delights! Is. 42:1

"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" Matt 3:17

In Him, God the Father has that One who whould love Him with all of His heart, with all His soul, and with all His strength.

In His Son alone the Father has One Who would "live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD".

So now II Cor 5:21 comes to mind. First, God the Father unleashes His awesome fury on His sinless Son, causing Him to pay the penalty for my sins. Now, after being washed in the cleansing Blood of Jesus, I have the righteousness of Christ put to my account. My sins were put to His account, and He was subsequently punished for them; Then His righteousness-that righteous life He led from the manger to the cross-was put to my account.

Oh, the wisdom of God!

"But now the righteousness of God---is revealed---even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe" Rom. 3:21-22

Loving God with all of ones being and obeying every word that comes from His mouth-Wow! I'm incapable of that. Unfortunatley, it's not my nature. What I can't do HE HAS DONE. I, a 265 pound power-lifter, need a Hero. Without Him I have no hope. I can't please the Father even with my best efforts. But, our triune God has come with THE answer, a Saving answer. No wonder when the people shouted Hosanna! as they were praising God, they were actually saying "Oh, Save!". God is praised and worshipped when I come to Him in utter need and call out for His salvation.

I am as helpless as that thief nailed to a cross next to Jesus. In his emptiness and helplessness he merely asked Jesus to remember him. He had no hope of redeeming himself. He was in agony on a cross only hours away from death.

Salvation came to that man that very day.

I think of the righteous life of my Hero, my Saviour, Jesus Christ.

At age twelve, he asked his searching parents: "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?".

Loving God with all of His Being. Living by every Word of God's mouth. THat was His life. At one point He told His disciples: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work". Another time He said, "for I always do those things that please Him".

Sinless. Perfect. Obedient. Full submission.

Jesus wanted to submit to and obey His Father with every beat of His heart.

Gethsemane awaited.

In that garden Jesus cried out "Abba Father---not My will, but Thine be done".

Jesus knew the sufferings that were just hours away. He knew that shortly the Father was going to look away from Him as He hung on the cross as a sinbearer. Yet He cries out in child-like obedience and trust in His Father when He says, "Abba". "Father, not my will, but Yours be done".

Complete abandonment and submission to His Father.

Hours later, having completed His sin-bearing mission, He declares: "It is finished". At that, every righteous obedient act of His life was ready to be put into my account.

Now it was possible for me to become "the righteousness of God in Him". Now when the Father looks at me, He no longer "imputes my trespasses" to me. Now I am clothed in Christ's righteousness-His righteousness having been put to my account.

What a plan of Salvation!

Now this is His name by which He will be called:THE LORD OUT RIGHTEOUSNESS.

REFLECTIONS ON JEREMIAH 23:6 PT3

God is HOLY!

He has said "The soul who sins shall die" and "The wages of sin is death" or again ,"without shedding of blood there is no remission [of sin]".

No sin is too small for Him to just pass over for "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all". As He declared to ancient Israel, "I the Lord your God am holy".

So many people through the ages have discounted His holiness and the horribleness of sin in His sight. Even today people will say, "Well, it was just a little white lie, that's all". There is no reverential fear of God or dread of offending Him with our sins. People laugh at the idea that their sins, every one of them, no matter how small, must be paid for by blood. All sin is the transgression of His holy standard; it is the crossing over of His holy character, the crossing of boundry lines. With sin, mankind falls short of God's holiness and glory. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God", "There is none righteous, no not one".

All sin is the stepping over of God's boundries.

All sin is the falling short of God's glory.

All sin must be paid for by blood.

All have sinned.

Enter the love, grace and mercy of God: "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." IICor. 5:21.

Christ, the sinless one, took our sins upon Himself so that God the Father could vent His fury upon Him in payment for our sins. Christ paid for our sins as our substitute---"[Christ] committed no sin---who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree---For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God---" I Peter 1:22,24,3:18.

Our glorious Savior paid the penalty for our sins; and oh, how He suffered: "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;---And the LORD has laid on Him the inquity of us all.---For the transgressions of my people He was striken.---Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin---By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities" Is. 53:5-11.

Even though it was wicked who men whipped Christ and tore out His beard, they were merely instruments in the Father's hands, for, HE was actually the One Who was punishing His Son-for OUR sins.

The whipping, the punching, the spitting, and finally the nailing to the cross was the Father venting His awesome fury upon His only Begotten Son, so that He could pay the penatly for our sins as our substitute.

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Rom. 5:9.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins---Eph. 1:7

---To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood---Rev. 1:5.

Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

To be continued...

REFLECTIONS ON JEREMIAH 23:6 pt.2

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength---Deut.6:5

...but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD...Deut8:3

Love God with all of your being? Live by every word that proceeds from His Mouth? Who has ever lived like that? Who CAN live like that?

Yet, these two verses seem to be God's design for the whole human race. Where it is written " all have sinned and fall short of of the glory of God" it would appear that these two verses are the standard that mankind falls short of; especially since these very verses are echoed by Jesus Himself through Whom God has spoken in these last days.

But, the heart of man is not inclined to love God like that or to obey His word. It is written, " We have turned every one to his own way" and " there is none righteous, no not one: There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable;There is none who does good, no, not one" Rom. 3:10-12.

What an indictment! Paul says that the human race is a "slave to sin". That is, we have a bent towards transgressing God's laws and falling short of His standard.

On the day God created man He concluded--" Then God saw every thing that He had made, and indeed it was very good". Interestingly though, after Adam and Eve disobeyed God His conclussion changed: " Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually".

So that's it:Man became a slave to sin as a result of Adam's sin in the garden, for there God told Adam " for in the day you eat of it you shall suely die". Adam,
and the whole human race with him, died spiritually that day meaning he, and through him, we, became slaves to sin. Loving God and obeying His word then became contrary to our nature.

I must exclaim with Isaiah, "Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips".

Hopeless. Helpless. Utterly lost. Spiritually dead.

Who could possibly stand before God when it was time to give an account of our lives before Him? He is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. He is Holy and Just. Sin must be paid for for His justice demands that. "The wages of sin is death". Who then can obtain a righteous standing before God?

Answer: " But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed---even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe --- being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness---that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus". Rom. 3:21-26.

Oh, the wisdom of God! HE has provided the way for those who believe to have a right standing before Him. It is through faith,no effort or devising on our part, purely of Him. The one believing in Jesus is declared righteous, free from the guilt and penalty of sin. It is by His unmerrited favor. The christian is redeemed from the slave market of sin,paid for by the blood of Jesus.

He will be called " THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS"

to be continued.




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REFLECTIONS ON JEREMIAH 23:6 pt.1

It is a dark hour in the Nation of Israel's history. A nation once comprised of the twelve tribes is now reduced to two- the northern ten having already been taken into captivity by Assyria. It was God's judgement for thier rebellion against Him. They had broken covenant and transgressed His Laws.

Jeremiah's ministry was to the remaining two tribes; and now, judgement was immenant for them as well. In the midst of Jeremiah's warnings of impending judgement and his exhortations to repent and return to God comes this wondrous and glorious prophecy. It is a prophecy of the coming of "a Branch of Righteousness;" and of a "King [Who]shall reign and prosper---in His days Judah will be saved, and And Israel will dwell safely;". It is the announcement of the coming of One Whom the Bible elsewhere calls "Lord and Christ"; and again "the Holy One and the Just";and again "the Prince of Life". It is also written of Him " Nor is there Salvation in any other , for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved". And what is the Name of this coming One about Whom Jeremiah writes? " Now this is His name by which He will be called:THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" or Jehovah Tsidkenu.

It is just under six-hundred years before His incarnation. Here He is called God-God the Son. This is the One about Whom God the Father testifies " You are My beloved Son; in you I am well pleased";or again "This is My beloved Son,Hear Him!". This is the One about Whom God the Holy Spirit would testify and glorify.

" All things were made through Him" and "In Him was life and the life was the light of men"

And then there is that wonderfull verse," For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life"

He was born of a virgin. Yes, He took on flesh and blood. One hundred percent God;One hundred percent man. A mystery yes, but true none the less.

He is Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

He is my only Hope of Salvation.

In Him alone shall I dwell safely.

He is my Lord and my God.

He alone is THE LORD MY RIGHTEOUSNESS.

More latter

Mark's Musings

Hi folks!
I'm new to this blogger thing so please be patient. I'm also new to typing which means I'm not that fast.

The Lord led me by His grace to trust in Him for Salvation in April, 1973. I am happily married and have 2 children. My purpose for this blog is to glorify my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I will only post perhaps twice a week at first due to my lack of typing speed. Most of my material will be devotional in nature.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mark