More than 120 years ago the Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to the leadership of my church. It became known as "the message of Christ's righteousness."
Note: it was not the "message of Christ's holiness." There is a vast different between "righteousness" and "holiness."
The Lord Jesus Christ was "holy" at His birth (cf. Luke 1:35); but He was "righteous" at His death (cf. Rom. 5:18). The glorious "plan of salvation" stretches between the "holiness" of Jesus at His birth and the "righteousness" of Jesus at His death on His cross.
For example, we read of the "holy angels," but we never read of the "righteous" good angels who did not fall with Lucifer; they are always "the holy angels."
The difference is spelled out clearly in Romans 8:3, 4, describing what happened in between Christ's holy birth and His righteousness at His death on the cross: "God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
From His holiness at His birth, the Lord Jesus "took" upon His sinless nature (which He had brought from heaven) our fallen, sinful nature and "condemned sin" in that fallen, sinful nature; that's how "holiness" was transformed into "righteousness."
No angel ever performed that feat, because no angel ever took "sinful flesh" to contend with, as we must do and as Christ "took" upon Himself. The vaults of heaven rang with the praise of Jesus Christ who accomplished that mighty deed; He proved that One can take our fallen, sinful nature or flesh, live in it, and yet "overcome" sin, defeat it, condemn it, in that same fallen, sinful nature (cf. Rev. 3:21). Satan, the great Enemy of God's universe, has been defeated forever!
Jesus Christ is an Evangelist: He wins souls. He is winning "144,000" who will "overcome" as He overcame. These people "follow the Lamb [the crucified Christ] wherever He goes" (14:1-5). You and I are invited; let's do something that wasn't done 120 years ago--let's wholeheartedly receive the most precious message.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 22, 2007.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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