Isaiah suggests that there is a relationship between
righteousness and peace. We are
encouraged to seek after righteousness, to set Him and the pursuit of righteousness
above all other things. We are to look
for the kingdom of God, to long for it to be established, in order that we may
know true peace from our enemies. He
says that when this day comes, evil will be trampled on by the poor and
needy. True strength comes from
righteousness. Do we understand and
believe that truth? If we are guilty of
sin, unconfessed and unrepented of sin, then we lack the power of God in our
lives, we block that power, we stand without assurance, we are fearful and
doubtful. Jesus is the only righteous
man who ever lived and His power came from that righteousness. He had no fear of man because He had no fear
of God. He needed not fear
judgment. Isaiah connects judgment and
the pursuit of righteousness. The more
we fear God's judgments the more we seek after righteousness, the way to avoid
that judgment. The perfect righteousness
required to avoid judgment is imputed to us, it is an alien righteousness, the
righteousness of Jesus. The preaching of
the Gospel is not complete unless the need for grace, the judgment of God, is
not in view so that people may seek Jesus rightly.
Could anyone actually believe that Jesus is the light of the
world, that if you follow Him you will not walk in darkness? Is that not a truly amazing thing for anyone
to say? We have to give the Pharisees a
bit of a break for not believing, if we didn't have the Holy Spirit we couldn't
believe it either. It is, however, true
and it would have been wrong for Jesus not to state it thus. They argue that they need further evidence,
someone else to give such testimony if they are to believe it. He offers a second witness, His Father. Their response is to ask where His Father is
and Jesus uses what would seem to be circular logic, you can't know the Father
because you don't know me. In order to
know the Father you have to believe in the Son and disbelief in the Son proves
you don't know the Father. We understand
this to be not circular logic, but the logic of the Trinity, the three are One
and to deny one is to deny both the particulars and the whole.
Paul says that he isn't going to repeat the same mistake
over and again. When he regarded Jesus
according to the flesh he was wrong, he needed a spiritual revelation of the
truth in order to make a right judgment.
Now, he says, he isn't going to judge anyone according to the flesh,
according to what he sees because it has already been proven to him that such
judgment is faulty. In Christ we are new
creations, new beings, not to be judged by the flesh, our standing in
society. We are to be judged
spiritually. As Jesus' ministry was
reconciliation so is ours. We are called
to be reconciled to God and that is a two step process, recognizing we are at
odds with God, and then pursuing His given means of reconciliation. If we are at odds with one another because we
did something to another that caused that division we no longer control the
means of reconciliation, that prerogative lies with the one who was sinned
against doesn't it? Jesus, then, is the
only way given by God to bring about reconciliation. Again, Trinitarian logic, the Holy Spirit is
given that we may discern truth and that truth is Jesus, the only way to the
Father, a closed loop.
