Isaiah 64:4-5 – Rejoicing in Righteousness
The person who is saved, the person who glorifies God, also enjoys Him. He just plain enjoys God, just like you do with any of your earthly friends. The longer you spend with them, the more time you have with them, the more invested you are into the relationship, the more you enjoy being with them, and the harder it is to be separate from them. We joy to be in God’s presence, too.
The same God in Christ, the same God in the covenant of grace who’s come down into our midst to save us, the same God who has done wonderful things that nobody has ever seen or heard or dreamed of like we see in verse 4, is the same God who meets with His people. For those of us who are very aware of our sin, this is an astonishing thing. God truly delights in us. You are never a disappointment to God. Jesus is not thinking, “I never expected that. I wish I hadn’t saved him. I wish I hadn’t saved her.” No, that never happens. It may be that for a time God, in a manner of speaking, turns His back. But it’s to make you feel how much you miss Him, so that you’re less and less likely to abandon Him.
How can this be? The entire testimony of the Scripture is that man is not righteous. How can we rejoice in righteousness? How can God meet with us? It is He Who provides righteousness. The Father chose us in Christ in eternity. He gave Him to us to live in our place and earn us righteousness. He gave Him to us to die in our place because of our guiltiness. And he gave Him to us to be raised in His and for our victory. That’s where the righteousness comes from.
How do we appropriate or get hold of it? It is by believing in Jesus. You take hold of that righteousness by crying out to Him to rescue you from your sin. You take hold of Christ and you take hold of His righteousness. And it’s put on your account. We have a full and free forgiveness of sin. The burden of guilt is gone. We have the Spirit living within us. We live more and more in a holy way. We want to obey what God says to do in His Word. We want to love our Father in heaven and be more like Him.
Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such a thing? And who among the heathen have ever imagined such a thing? He has taken us in His love, we the unlovely, and made us to be His, that we might rejoice in righteousness, that we might be mindful of His ways. And He delights to meet us there!
Question
- Where does our righteousness come from?
Prayer Points
- Pray that you would glorify God and enjoy Him.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.