Righteousness

For Friday, January 27, 2006
Proverbs 15:9

The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,
but he loves him who pursues righteousness.

God is not lukewarm, neither about sin nor righteousness. He does not look upon us with indifference; he does not find sin humorous, nor does he regard righteousness mildly. He hates sin and will judge in his wrath the sinner; he loves the righteous, preparing for them a place of glory. Therefore pursue righteousness!

But this is a message of despair, for "I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Thanks be that "now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law...the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe...[For we] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith." (Romans 7:21-25; 3:21-25)

Give thanks to God this day and every day for this Gospel truth.