Liturgical Reading for June 9

Part of today's liturgical reading is from Matthew 5:20-26:

I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (verse 20)
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Matthew 5:20-26:

If anyone was meticulous about the rubrics of their faith – it was the Scribes and Pharisees. If anyone faithfully attended worship services, tithed, prayed and fasted – no one matched their zeal. If anyone was assured heaven . . . .

However, the Lord Jesus told anyone who’d listen, religious works aren’t enough. We need something more. Much more. We need what none of us can attain on our own: the very righteousness of God.

And that’s what Calvary is all about – the righteousness of God credited to us. St. Paul would say it later to the Corinthian church:

”So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he (God) made (Christ) to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)

The Father made Christ to be Sin. Why? So that we who confess our sins to God and plead for His forgiveness would become the righteousness of God in Christ.

Think of it. When we humble ourselves before God and confess our sins, God clothes us with Christ’s righteouness.

Oh, how great is His mercy; how unfathomable His grace.

rich
rmaffeo@comcast.net