Our Iniquities for His Righteousness – by Zack Fugate

  Posted on March 1, 2016  by   No comments

“Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”-Isaiah 53:11

Consider the depth of what the Lord has described in this verse. To achieve righteousness is to achieve a legal status as one who is without sin. The only righteous human to achieve such a status is Christ and Christ alone. You might be thinking, “Wait, I am a righteous person. I strive to achieve righteousness in the eyes of those around me so that I may bear a better witness of the relationship Jesus offers.” Please lovingly consider that, while this may seem to make sense and tickle your ears as a positive thing to say/think, it is evidence of a lack of righteousness.

You may have even heard someone claim, “I am a righteous person; I love God and I am free from sin.” Again, while it may sound correct and may even seem to make sense; there is a fundamental breakdown with regard to righteousness. Read the above scripture from Isaiah once again. To be clear, the author is describing a picture for all of mankind, past, present, and in the days to come. What is that picture? It is that we have nothing to offer the Lord except iniquities. His love for us willingly accepts our iniquities in trade for the righteousness that can only be found in Jesus.

“His love for us willingly accepts our iniquities in trade for the righteousness that can only be found in Jesus.”

The world promises mankind that we can fix ourselves. That our iniquities are a result of a lack of knowledge, a lack of nutrition, resources, experiences, and environmentally driven. The world tells us that we can overcome those iniquities as a result of our own abilities and strengths. The world offers mankind nothing but lies as a product of sin and the works of our enemy. One does not have to search far and wide to find a self-help product, book, tape, cd, or guru. Check out the self-help section of a bookstore and you will see the evidence of a world gone mad because it has chosen to drink the nectar of pride and self-righteousness. Quite frankly, to even consider that we somehow have the ability, strength, knowledge, etc…to overcome our iniquities is arrogant and blasphemous.

How so? Consider Galatians 2:21, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” If we believe that we can achieve righteousness on our own accord, then we are also claiming that Christ’s death was pointless; that the gift of salvation found in the righteousness bestowed upon us from God through Christ isn’t necessary.

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”-2 Corinthians 5:21

The Word of God is clear, it is only because of the covering of Christ that we can be found as righteous in the eyes of God. Christ alone can arm us with the breastplate of righteousness. To pursue righteousness is to pursue a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ as we continue to work out our salvation as we are instructed in Philippians 2:12.What a blessing it is to know that his love is so abounding, that he gave his life so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God!

Your brother in Christ, Zack Fugate