Righteous Expectations
Galatians 2:16
Saturday, March 3rd
A commercial air-conditioning technician is at his second week on the job. His supervisor tasks him with diagnosing their largest rooftop unit, the Intellipak! The technician climbs up the ladder to the roof of the building, goes to the unit, opens up the panels and is immediately overwhelmed. Before him are hundreds of feet worth of wire, circuit boards, relays, contactors and so much more. Terrified, he gets out his tools and begins checking every piece. Frantically, he tries to find out why the unit is not cooling. He is worried that if he doesn’ t find the problem soon enough they won’ t let him work again. After 10 minutes he hasn’ t found a single problem. His supervisor sees how stressed out he is and yells to him,“ Calm down, stop trying so hard!”
You might not be an air-conditioning technician but have you ever felt that way before with God’ s law? You hear over and over all the demands and commandments God asks of you to do and not to do. You try so hard to be a good Christian and rule follower. But soon you become distraught with fear and anxiety. You don ' t always do what God demands and commands. You begin to see your failings and think,“ God will never accept me or my attempts at keeping his laws.” It’ s time to give up your righteous expectations that you can be perfect on your own. It ' s not because we are pretty good people or do some pretty good things that we can stand before God. It ' s not what we do that gives us a clean slate with God. We can ' t fulfill God ' s law perfectly and completely. We need someone else. That someone else is Christ. Our faith and trust are in him. He has fulfilled God’ s law perfectly and completely. Now, through faith in Christ we are credited with his righteousness and his holiness.
That changes the way we live. We stop trying to be perfect because Jesus lived perfectly for us. He has earned salvation for us. We live with confidence and trust in Christ who has made us holy. We live our lives in thankfulness for what he has done. We let God ' s law and commandments guide our lives because he has filled our hearts with gratitude. We want to do what he wants and not do what he doesn ' t want. And sometimes when we ' re overwhelmed and forget, remember the work of Christ. He came to be perfect in your place. That ' s your comfort and your peace. His work has made you holy and righteous in the eyes of God.
Prayer: Gracious Lord, calm our hearts and fill us with peace knowing that your Son has justified us not by our works but by his perfect life and innocent death. Amen.
Activity: Name three laws that you are especially thankful for that Jesus obeyed perfectly for you.
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