“My Standing with God” – FBC Morning Light (9/5/2023)

Well, a good Tuesday morning to you. I hope you had a good day yesterday, a good holiday, took the day off work, got some rest, refreshment, spent some time with family, friends perhaps. I hope you had a good day.

Well, today in our Bible reading plan we're reading in Isaiah 17 and 18, Philippians chapter three and Proverbs chapter six. And let me ask you this question. What do you look to as a basis for your standing before God?

What do you look to? In other words, what do you consider to be the things that give you a good or better standing before God? In answer to that question, some people will answer and say things like, you know, what they do in terms of their religious ritual, for example.

They're very faithful at going to church every Sunday. They don't ever miss unless they're sick or something like that. And they're confident that if I go to church every Sunday, then God will look more favorably upon me.

I'll have a better standing with him. Some people who are maybe a little more, have a little more spiritual depth, might say something like, well, you know, I read my Bible and pray every day. I really do.

And I make that an important thing. I do it first thing in the morning, and I just make sure I get my devotions in very first thing. I never miss again unless some emergency comes up, but I'm just very, very faithful at having my devotions every day.

And the further statement that's put in parentheses and is unstated would be, and therefore, I have to have a better standing before God because of this. Or some people might answer things like, well, I've got, I come from a background of very religious people.

All of my family were Christian, and I even have ministers in my family background. And I've been a member of such and such a church that was the church of my parents and my grandparents, and they can trace their ancestry back to the founding of that church or whatever.

So they look at their religious background as a basis of good standing before God. And others might consider their religious zeal, their spiritual zeal, you know, they're just very zealous about spiritual things, religious things.

And even others might consider their moral virtue, you know, as a kind of a little saying, the little ditty goes, I don't drink and I don't chew and I don't go with the girls that.

Do.

I'm therefore a morally upright individual, and that has to put me in good standing with God. Well, listen to this. Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 3, he says, there are those who might have confidence in the flesh.

If anyone thinks he might have confidence in the flesh, I more so. Paul could say, I've got all kinds of things in my background that I could look to to give me confidence of my standing before God. He says this, I was circumcised on the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews.

So he's looking at his religious pedigree, he's looking at his ethnic background, he's looking at how meticulous his parents were at fulfilling the demands of the law, having him circumcised the eighth day and so forth.

He says, concerning the law, I was a Pharisee, a Pharisee, a Pharisee who was so meticulous about obedience to the Mosaic law that they came up with all kinds of additional interpretations and applications of that law that had to be adhered to so that you were sure not to violate any aspect of the Mosaic law.

I was a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, I was persecuting the church, those who I thought were anti-God. Concerning righteousness, which is in the law, I was blameless. So Paul is saying, if anybody thinks they have a basis for standing before God on account of their pedigree or their zeal or their obedience to the law and so forth, Paul says, that would.

Be me.

But listen to what he continues to say. Those things that were gained to me, these I've counted loss for Christ. He says, indeed, I count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things.

I count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.

You see what Paul is saying? He's saying, I don't look to all those meaningless religious things for my standing before God. I look to Christ. I need to know Christ. I need to be found in Christ. I need to have Christ's righteousness imputed to me, and it is being in Christ that gives me standing before God.

I wonder today, are you in Christ? Has the righteousness of Christ been imputed to you? Are you truly born again, child of God, one who is in Christ Jesus? Well, if you are, you have standing before God because you are in Christ, and not because of your religious pedigree, or your religious ritual, or your religious zeal.

No.

Zeal to be found in Christ, zeal to know Christ, yes, and as you know Christ, your life will be certainly transformed and changed, but it is being in Christ that gives you standing before God. I want to encourage you with that today, if you are a believer in Christ, that you are standing before God because of Christ and your relationship to him.

So Father in heaven, thank you for this encouraging thought today, that it is not who we are or what we do that gives us standing before you, but it is who Christ is, and what Christ has done in our being in him.

Bless us with those thoughts today, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your Tuesday. May the Lord bless you in it, good day.