The Righteous Requirement...

Life has a way of testing the believer's resolve to walk in love. Though we know that we are called to walk in love - not just toward those who love us, but also to those who are our enemies - there just are times when we fail miserably.

When we look at our conduct and attitudes, and know that we have failed to respond as Jesus would, it is easy to assume that The Father's response to us changes accordingly. But there is good news! I John 3:19,20 tells us that if our heart condemns us, God is greater
than our heart and knows all things. God knew before He called us, that we would struggle to maintain the right attitudes, and walk in love and yet do something different than we had intended. This is the reason Jesus gave Himself for us. His death on the cross accomplished what we in our human frailty cannot.
Romans 7:15-20:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do: no, the evil I do not want to do- this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Here Paul explains the dilemma of the believer who delights in God's Word and determines to live his life in a manner pleasing and acceptable to God- yet finds himself doing the very things he hates. This is the problem for every believer- but the good news is that God saw it coming and had the perfect solution- He condemned sin (not the sinner) in the body of His Son Jesus on the cross, so that we could be forgiven completely and our righteousness would not be dependent on our own actions and goodness, but on the actions and goodness of Christ Jesus!

Romans 8:1 - 4:

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Thank God that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in Christ Jesus!

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