Naked and Unashamed

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Genesis 2:25

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account......
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:13,16

In the garden of Eden, before the fall of man, Adam and Eve were sinless and communed with God without shame despite their nakedness. They were unaware of their nakedness in that they did not see it as anything unusual. They had a closeness with God and confidence before God that could only be present in an innocent state. But with the fall of man things changed. Adam hid from God realizing his sin and experiencing shame for the first time. Shame can be defined as: having a painful feeling and emotional distress (sometimes to the point of despair), for having done something wrong, with an associative meaning of having the disapproval of those around them. 1 Since Adam, we all experience shame before God which comes from the realization of our sin and of God's holiness. God sees all, no matter how hard we try to hide (Heb 4:13). Yet there is good news! Through faith in Christ, we become righteous before God (2 Corinthians 5:21). My sin exchanged for his righteousness. So for the believer, we now can approach Almighty God with confidence (the KJV says "boldness") to receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Our relationship with God is reconciled (Romans 5:1), and we can be naked and unashamed before God as Adam and Eve were originally in the garden. Praise be to the Ancient of Days for providing us with the means for peace with Himself and peace within ourselves. Amen

1. Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.) (DBLH 1017). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

From Faith for Faith

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Ro 1:16-17

Looking at verse 17 and again gaining insite from John Piper's sermons on Romans, Paul says the righteousness of God is revealed in it (the gospel) from faith (our faith). The righteousness of God is credited to us by God resulting from God's grace to us in our faith in him. Righteousness is established in faith and this empowers our persistence in faith (ie from faith to faith). Paul quoting Habakkuk 2:4 finishes verse 17 with the words, "the righteous shall live by faith." There are two possible interpretations for this ending. Both I believe are true, but the latter makes the most sense in context. The first is that we will live our lives here on earth by faith. So, as Paul says in Galatians..."the life I live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20)" We are sustained and energized for life in faith. The second interpretaion is that the word "live" refers to eternal life in glory. We receive eternal life in heaven by faith. Piper discusses Romans 1:17 as being the verse that transformed Martin Luther as he realized the meaning and significance of Paul's words.

Observations:
1) The gospel reveals the crediting of righteousness to those who believe.
2) Faith is the "vehicle" through which righteousness is applied.
3) God is the power by which we receive righteousness.
4) Eternal life is the result of faith.
5) By inference, works are not necessary for imputed righteousness and eternal life.

I Am Righteous!

I am righteous! That is a profound statement. A statement that when taken out of context is really ridiculous (Rom 3:10)....especially if you know me. I just spent an hour in anger and sinful response to an occurance in my life, and I am struck with amazement at the thought of being considered righteous. I am so far from righteousness in my actions at times it sickens me. But there is good news for me and for you if you feel like I do (John 3:16). For Christ atoned for my sins on the cross 2000 years ago. First, Jesus came in the form of man and through active obedience to the law he fulfilled what you and I could never do...he lived a sinless life (Heb 4:15, 1Pe 2:22). He was and is righteous. Then he bore the sins of all who believe in him in his body on the cross (1 Pe 2:24). He paid the ransom for our sins (1 Tim 2:6; Rev 5:9). The entire cup of God's wrath against my sin was poured out on Christ. His wrath is spent for my past and my future sin. The sin I committed in anger today was upon Christ, and the sin I commit tomorrow was on Christ. So through his passive obedience unto death on the cross the penalty required for my sin was paid in full. I am redeemed. I am justified before God (Rom 5:1), Christ having served vicariously for me my sentence. But that's not all. Christ's righteousness for his obedient perfect life is then imputed or credited to me (2 Cor 5:21). Through this, I am reconciled in my relationship to God. He sees me as having the righeousness of Christ. All this through faith in God's person, his Word and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amazing grace.

Hunger.

I frequently am impressed with my inability to do what is right in God's eyes. Even if I try "really, really hard," I find it impossible to lead a righteous life. I am able to see sin in my thoughts, and even in my trivial actions that to others go unnoticed. It makes me sad to think I dishonor God through my sin in so many ways. I long to be a good and faithful servant to my Lord. But in reality, this sadness because of my sin and the longing to honor God point to the condition I will have in eternity. I long for myself fulfilled in purpose to the Almighty. Until I am with him this cannot be fulfilled as sin in me prevents it. Listening to Steve Brown on the radio this week was encouraging as he commented on Jesus' words on the above situation:

Matthew 5:6: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."

Observations:
-Those that long (hunger and thirst) for righteousnes are blessed.
-Those that long for righteousness will receive it.