The Righteousness You Don’t Have to Earn

Have you ever felt like you had to earn God’s approval? In this episode, we look at what Jesus revealed in Matthew about humility, grace, and the righteousness we can only receive by faith.

Transcript

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Audrey 1:14

Hi, friend. Welcome back to Grace for My Home. I'm Audrey McCracken, and I'm so glad to be back with you again this week. I've been looking forward to our time together and praying about what to share with you this week. Excuse me if I sound stuffy. I am. I've loaded myself with a bunch of medicine and um tried to um make myself presentable so I so I'm not coughing in your ear, but I'm um getting over a cold this week. I hope that you and your family are doing well. We are doing well. My youngest son, Caleb, I think I told you guys last week, he got his driver's license. So I have three driving teenagers in my home. And, you know, it's it's always bittersweet, right? That we want them to grow up, but we don't want them to grow up. Or maybe I'm just speaking for myself. I watched Caleb pull out of the driveway this morning, and um he he was in late last night because he had soccer practice, and so I was telling him, you know, you got to be careful, don't speed, you know, all these things. And he's giving me the look, like, I know mama, I know. But I, you know, I'm I'm thankful that he's able to drive now. But there is a, you know, a little part of me that that leaves with him every time he pulls out the driveway because I, you know, I'm I know what's out there, you know, isn't that how it is to be a mom, you know, and that's like an analogy for life. We know what's out there, and we know that they're not experienced in what's out there, but we have to let them go by faith and figure it out for themselves. So um, I'm learning my place. I'm learning that, you know, my my the best thing I can do is is love and pray. Love and pray because I've got three teenagers that, you know, I after a while, if you if you're constantly telling them what to do and how to do, and you know, they turn a deaf ear to you. And I've I've gone through seasons of that where it's just that I get the eye rolled, but that's okay. That's okay. I'm Mama, and I know they love me, and they know I love them. I'm thankful for this season, but it's like any season that you've never been there. You know, how do you know how to do something you've never been there? You know, you can read the books and you can talk to people, but there's nothing that can prepare you like going through it. You know, you got to go through it, and then you can help other people, then you can share advice with other people, but even then they got to go through it. That's what's been on my mind this morning. You know, it's it's it's training. Everything is training. God uses everything, nothing is wasted. You know, we're training a new girl at our coffee shop, and she's doing great. She is doing really well, but some things you just can't learn until you get in there and do them. And some things just take a lot of practice. You can have the theory, you can have the knowledge and the know-how, but you got to train your hands to do it until you're until it becomes second nature. And, you know, a lot of that is what it's like to serve God. We read the word and we get it in our mind, and you know, a light bulb goes off, and it's like, oh, okay, that's how the kingdom works. But until we're actually walking in it day by day, and it becomes a part of who we are, and we see the intricacies, and you know, and we make the mistakes and think, well, I won't do that again, then it's really not, it's just head knowledge. It's not who we are. We're not walking it out. And that's my prayer for me and for you, that God's word would not just be head knowledge. It wouldn't just be something that we could check off the list and say, Well, I know that. It would be something that we are, it would be, it would become who we are. We would walk it out and we would be that living epistle, that living word, and that people would see Jesus in us, they would see Christ in us, and that it would be beautiful and it would attract people to Christ through us. And that's my prayer. That's my prayer for us. You know, Jesus attracted people to him because he loved people, and so people were drawn to him. I told you last week that I've been reading through the book of Matthew, and something this week that has stood out to me as I was reading through the scriptures, I'm I was reminded how Jesus was always reaching out to people to help them, to love them, to heal them, to teach them. And the common people, the common folk were very drawn to him because he taught them and he spent time with them and he cared about them. But the religious people, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, they were always butting heads with Jesus. They were coming to him, questioning him, um, trying to find fault, always accusing. And Jesus had to deal with them all the time. He had to, you know, they came to him with questions. Why would you heal on the Sabbath? You know, why do your disciples do this and you don't correct them? In Matthew 9, Jesus was having dinner with publicans, with tax collectors, with those that the Pharisees saw as beneath them. He had just called Matthew to be a disciple, which I'm sure was confusing to a lot of people because Matthew was a tax collector and hated by his own people. And when the Pharisees questioned his disciples and said, Why is your master eating with publicans and sinners? Jesus heard it and he said to them, Those who are well, they don't need a physician. But those that are sick they do. And see, Jesus was the physician for those who needed him. He was the physician for the sinner. But in order to receive his healing, you have to admit that you're sick. You know, if we have it all together and we don't need Jesus, then he's not gonna force himself on us. That's his nature. He said, Ask and you'll receive, seek and you'll find, knock and the door will be open. But if you're fine and you know you don't need anything, and you know, he's he's not gonna push himself on you. But when we come to Jesus with a humble heart, a heart that recognizes that we need him, then he meets us there. A humble heart is a teachable heart, a humble heart is pliable, and he can work with that. It's like clay that can be molded. And that's the kind of heart that receives and the kind of heart that we need when we go before Jesus. One of the things I love about Jesus is that he puts us all on a level playing field. Nothing that I have, nothing that I've ever done, nobody you know I'm related to gives me an advantage when it comes to coming before God. Because before God, I'm a sinner. Before God, I have no righteousness of my own. We're all sinners. We're all sinners saved by grace. But it's only those of us who can admit that we're sinners, that we need grace, that can receive grace. See, those Pharisees, they needed saving too, but they didn't think they did because they were the keepers of the law. And instead of coming to Jesus as the Messiah, they were constantly looking for fault because he did not behave and act the way they thought that a rabbi should act, and certainly not the way they thought that the Messiah would act. They were so confident in their own righteousness and in their own works. And they they they didn't need a savior. They were the keepers of the law, they were the righteous ones, and they thought that they were winning God's approval by legalistically obeying the law and judging everybody else around them. But Jesus didn't come that way, he didn't treat people that way. See, Jesus actually communicated with people. He reached out to people who were not living right and knew they were not living right, not because he wanted to judge them or shame them into doing right, but he wanted to show them the way. He knew that they needed a savior, and they knew they needed a savior, and he cared about them. He wanted them to make it. And Jesus was so confident in who he was that he didn't have to bring them down to make himself feel better. You know, the Pharisees, they, you know, if if you're living legalistically, or if your righteousness is all about how good you are or all the things that you do right, then the only way to feel good about yourself is to compare yourself with somebody who's not measuring up to your standard. And that's what the Pharisees were doing. The only reason they were on top is because everybody else was on bottom. And Jesus, he came and broke up the system because it he's he was showing them another way. He was showing them the heart of God. The heart of God is to lift everybody up. The heart of God is that everyone would be saved, that all sinners would come to repentance. But see, if if that happened in the Pharisees' world, then who were they? They were nobody. If they weren't the best, and they had presented themselves as the best. And so here comes Jesus, and he's loving on everybody. He's not sinning with sinners, he's loving sinners and he's showing them that God loves them and that there's a way out of sin and that he is that way. He treated people with respect and not with contempt. He cared about their lives and the things going on in their lives, and he listened to them and he became their friend. He extended a hand to help pull them out of where they were instead of shaming them. And you know, shame doesn't work. Shame might work temporarily. You know, we might can shame our children into doing something we want them to do, but that doesn't last. It's manipulation. And Jesus didn't come to shame us into doing the right thing. Yes, he exposes sin. Yes, he doesn't, he doesn't play with sin, but he also brings us the solution for sin. And he cared and he knew we were all sinners. See the the difference between the tax collectors and the publicans and even the Gentiles that Jesus ministered to and helped and healed is that they understood they needed a savior. They knew they were sick and needed a physician, but the Pharisees did not. They their pride would not allow them to humble themselves and need Jesus. And guys, that's the key to Jesus' heart is to humble ourselves and have a heart that is willing to receive the grace that he provides. First Peter 5, 6 says, humble yourself, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. You see, the Bible talks about different kinds of righteousness. And we have to choose what kind of righteousness we're gonna walk in. Well, first of all, we have to choose that we want to walk in righteousness, right? We have to choose that we want to do the right things, that we want to be righteous before God. But then we have to choose what kind of righteousness we're gonna walk in. Do we want the kind of righteousness like the Pharisees had, which is based on our doing, based on, you know, our trying to be better than other people, on our trying, on us trying to impress other people, on us trying to work our way to God. Do we want that kind of righteousness? Or do we want the righteousness that comes from God by faith? That is a righteousness that is a gift that must be received. Jesus gives us his righteousness as a gift, and we must admit that we need it and receive it. Let me read to you from the Bible some scriptures that highlight this. I'm going to read Romans starting in chapter 10, verse 1. And, you know, this was written by Paul, and in the previous chapter, he had talked about the Jewish people who Jesus was sent to. He was a Jew and he was sent to the Jewish Jewish people, but they had rejected him. And so, so starting here in chapter 10, verse 1, he's talking about them. And he says, Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation, talking about his people, the Jews. For I testify, starting in chap starting in verse two, for I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves or submit themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. And then again in Philippians, Paul wrote this epistle to the Philippians, and he taught he's talking in chapter three, he gives a long list of all of the things that he did that should earn him favor with God. You know, all of the things that he did. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees, and he gives a whole list of all of his accomplishments. But then starting in verse 7, he says, about that whole list that he just gave, he says, But whatever were gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. In other words, none of those things matter for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. So see, there's a righteousness that comes from God that's not based on my works, it's not based on your works, it's not based on who you know or how good you are or what family you were born in or what church you go to. It's based on faith in Jesus Christ alone. That's where true righteousness comes from. And the only way to receive that righteousness is by faith in Jesus Christ, is to humble ourselves and admit that we need it and to receive it. And just one more scripture. Can I just share one more scripture with you? And the reason I don't want to inundate you with scripture, but the reason I want to share this with you is because I want you to see that it's in the word, that it's not my opinion or something I've come up with. This is the word of God. And it says in in back in Romans in chapter three, starting in verse 21, but now, apart from the law, God's righteousness has been revealed, attested by the law and the prophets. That is God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So Jesus, knowing that we could never fulfill the requirements of the law, he came and fulfilled the requirements of the law for us and gave us his righteousness. He took our sin, it was nailed on the cross with him, and he gave us the righteousness of God so that we could know him, so that we could please him, so that we could please God, so that we could walk freely with God in fellowship. And guys, that's where the joy of our salvation comes. When we are no longer striving to be good enough and just say, Lord, thank you that you have made me able to become before you, that the blood of Jesus has cleansed me of all unrighteousness, and now I can be called your child. I'm your daughter, I'm your girl. And I don't have to carry the heavy burden of doing everything right and making sure that I cross all of my T's and dot all of my I's. And guys, it's not a license to live sloppy. You know, when you love Jesus, you want to please him, you want to become like him. You know, it's not a license to go do whatever we want to do and then come to Jesus and say, okay, I receive your grace. No, it's the grace to be able to walk with him by faith, knowing that no matter how many times I fall, I can get back up, I can come to him, and he is changing my heart. It's not willingly walking in sin. As we study this more deeply, Paul even says, God forbid that we continue in sin after we've been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. You know, there's a it's a heart issue. It's knowing that nothing can keep me from God because he nailed my sins to the cross, and that's where they will stay. He loves you so much. He wants to have fellowship with you, and he doesn't care what the rest of the world thinks. You know, he sat down with those publicans and those tax collectors and he enjoyed them. He was their friend, he listened to them, he cared about them. Even when the Pharisees were pointing at fingers and whispering and and wondering, questioning, you know, how can he do that? He did not, he was not ashamed of them. And he's not ashamed of you. He's not ashamed of me. He loves us. Those who are well don't need a physician. I need a physician, I need Jesus. I need him daily. And I'm I'm not embarrassed to say, I have issues, I have issues, and I need Jesus. He is my lifeline and he is my friend, and he is my savior. So I hope that this is an encouraging word for you today and a good reminder that he's on your side, that he's sitting at your table talking with you, no matter who around you is pointing their finger and saying, Who is she to talk to Jesus? Who is she to think that she can serve God? You are the one he chose from the foundation of the world that he could fellowship with you and that he could be your friend. And um, I want to pray for you today before we go. Father, I thank you for my friend today. I thank you, Lord, that we are sisters in you because you've called us into your family. Lord, that you were not turned away by our sin, but you drew us despite it. And Lord, I pray, God, that you would reveal to us the good things that you have prepared for those who choose you. And Lord, I pray today for hope, hope so strong in our hearts that nothing can knock it out. And we give you honor, Lord, and we thank you today for your love and your great compassion in Jesus' name. Amen. Bye bye.