Jenny Hope: Justified

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Justified

Romans 4:4-8

4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.

5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

7 "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."

I was reading this passage last night and verse 5 jumped out to me where it says “God who justifies the wicked.” I looked up the greek word used here (dikaioo) for justified and it means: just, righteous, upright. To justify, declare righteous, acquit; to demonstrate or show to be just or righteous; to exercise righteousness…the verb means to deem righteous, esteem as being just, prove or show to be righteous, to perform justice. I could go on with the definition from my lexical aids but you get the point. He took my wickedness and by me believing on Him, He imputed His righteousness to me. He made me righteous by the shed blood of Jesus. He did not repay me for my sins. He could have but He didn’t (I am not saying that sins don’t have a consequence). There have been so many times that I have looked at my life and the sins that I have committed and I have known that I have deserved death for my own wickedness yet He has shown mercy. This may not seem like a big deal to you…but when you have sinned your tail off like I have and the Lord has not treated you as your sins deserve but He has been merciful(or justified you), it is a HUGE DEAL. I just fell to my face a minute ago and cried out to God to thank him for His grace. Why has He been so good to me? Why has He not cast me off, I ask Him. God forgives us when we come and humbly repent of our sins. He removes them as far as the east is to the west. He blots them out…yet I prayed today that I would NEVER EVER forget how great a debtor I am to Him. He has taken away my reproach…but I don’t ever want to forget what He has done for me and how completely “other” He is. I have been the woman at the well…I have been the sinful woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with the perfume in her alabaster box. I have washed His feet with my tears and dried them with my hair. No one will ever know the cost of the perfume in my alabaster box. No one but He and I will ever know the depth of forgiveness that He has shown to me. I pray that others will have the same flow of mercy and grace wash over their life as I have.