RIGHTEOUSNESS REVEALED
Kendra Intihar
Today's Scripture: “And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ Jeremiah 23:6b, ESV
Theme: Jesus’ life and character show us God as Jehovah Tsidkenu (The LORD is our Righteousness).
WHAT IS THE UK LIKE?
My family recently took a trip to the United Kingdom. All of us, except our six-year-old, had been to the UK once before, so we knew to expect foggy, misty, chilly days. The rest of us had already felt the cobblestones under our feet and climbed the hilly paths up to crumbling castles. We’d driven on the left side of the road, taken a double-decker bus across town, and tasted authentic fish and chips. We had described these things to our six-year-old, but until he saw, tasted, and felt these experiences for himself, he didn’t have a full picture of what the UK was like.
WHAT IS GOD LIKE?
John’s Gospel tells us that before Jesus, we didn’t truly know what God was like. According to John, "No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.” (John 1:18, CSB). When Jesus came, we could finally see, taste, and feel who God is through the life and ministry of His Son, who has revealed Him. God is like Jesus!
When Jeremiah promised a King who would be called, “The Lord is our Righteousness,” (Jeremiah 23:6), God’s people likely imagined a ruler who would restore right living, but no one could’ve conjured in their minds a king like Jesus. Jesus did more than restore right living. He became our righteousness by taking our sin upon Himself. As Scripture says, “He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21, CSB). In a colossal exchange, Jesus takes what is ours (sin) and gives us what is His (righteousness). He is our righteousness.
CONCEPTUAL VS. EXPERIENTIAL
Seeing God, in Christ, is like stepping into a place you’ve only heard described. In Jesus, we finally see what God is like, not conceptually, but experientially. No one has ever seen God, but He is revealed in Jesus! In seeing God through the right lens of Jesus Christ, we understand that the One who traded our sins for His righteousness is showing us what God has desired for us to know all along. Viewing God on this side of the New Testament gives us a deeper understanding of what Jeremiah meant when he declared that the Lord is our Righteousness.
Make it Personal: Why do you think people in Jeremiah’s time (and even now) might expect a ruler who enforces righteousness rather than one who becomes it for us?
Prayer: God, we humbly thank you for showing us what you are like by sending your Son Jesus. Thank you for trading places with us, our sin for your righteousness. That will never make sense, but we are grateful. Help us to experience you this week. Amen.
Read: Hebrews 1:3; John 14:9; Isaiah 53:11
Weekly Memory Verse: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures...” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, ESV