Put on his grace

Saturday March 27, 2021

Put on his grace

We have all become like unclean things, and all of our righteousness is like a bloodstained garment. Isaiah 64.5

The prophet Isaiah has no complacency with the "believers" of his day, who avail themselves of their works, of their religious practice. He forcefully says that all these works of righteousness which they claim are like a defiled garment.

At all times, men have sought to reach God through their personal efforts, through their good works. It was then that God said to us : "All of this is unnecessary, it is just a stain of blood."

Seeking to justify yourself is like trying to clean a wound with hands full of mud. In all his epistles, the apostle Paul will recall that any search for justification outside the work of the cross can only lead to condemnation.

Self-righteousness is one of the usual means by which men seek to justify themselves. They think they can escape condemnation by availing themselves of their own justice.

"To want to put on our own righteousness is to despise the price Jesus paid on the cross."

Our own righteousness can rest on our works, on our merits, on the practice of ritual observations, on the law, on our biblical knowledge, on our good conscience... In the first chapters of the letter to the Romans, Paul goes demonstrate that all these bases for establishing our own justice are ineffective. He concludes : "There is no righteousness, not even one." (Romans 3.10). He adds : "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3.23)

Paul will cite the examples of Abraham and David, who were justified not because of their works, their good conscience, not because of their merit, their deep knowledge of God, but as he specifies for David, who having repeatedly transgressed the law, owed his salvation only by his faith in the grace of God, following his repentance, as he says : "He who trusts in the Lord is surrounded by his grace." (Psalm 32.10)

To want to put on our own righteousness is to despise the price Jesus paid on the cross. Our justification, our salvation, is found only in the merits of Jesus' sacrifice. Believing in the efficacy of what Christ did leads us to renounce putting on our own righteousness, and trusting in his grace.

Advice for today

Cast off your own righteousness, and put on the righteousness which Christ offers you by grace. His grace alone justifies us, purifies us, sets us free, offers us life.

Paul Calzada

Source (The Thought of the Day)