I have been thinking and reading lately on the truth of 'justification by faith,' and I have so enjoyed looking at this wonderful truth in some new and beautiful ways..looking at exactly Whose faith justifies us and exactly what it means to be justified in the first place...
I think a beautiful way to look at justification by faith is that we are
proved to be right/righteous by the faith OF the Son of God, not our
faith at all..we aren't changed from sinful to righteous but proved
innocent - justified - in our courtroom we've set up inside our heads!!
God never needed proof of who we were or of our true nature, after all,
He fathered us and 'knew what was in man' all along! He knew we were in
His image, no matter how much that image seemed obscured or hidden by
our being influenced by lies and thus not in touch with or allowing
ourselves to express our true selves. It seemed with all those lies coming at us, and those seeming contradictions in our behavior and speech and emotions, that we could never see ourselves as
that 'good and righteous child of God' that each of us truly were..not as
long as those troubled and deceptive thoughts were in our minds. It was almost
as if we'd set up a courtroom mentally to 'try' ourselves and found so
much 'evidence' of criminality..
But Jesus justified us in our court of
law (our legal minds) by proving our worth and innocence at the cross,
where He said we didn't know what we were doing..He showed solidarity
with the human race, showed we were his brothers and sisters, with the
family characteristics of our mutual Father - characteristics of a
loving and good nature and a kind and unselfish disposition/heart at the
core!
And He proved all this too - and more - by rising from the dead, showed we were
spirit just as He was/is and can't stay dead! Death loses its grip when
you see that! Thank You, Jesus for justifying us, proving us right,
exonerating and vindicating us in the presence of our 'enemy' - the
thoughts accusing us in our minds!
Justified by the faith OF the Son of God IN us! He never doubted we were God's holy children for a second! He was willing to put His life on the line to prove it! He knew that the worst things we could do were done in ignorance and confusion, and that God the Father would bring Him back to life no matter what to show us that, to erase our wrong, to show us His marvelous love once and for all! When someone believes in you enough to love you and call you beautiful even while you spit on His face, beat Him, and string Him up and leave Him to die..that love does something to you inside..
Love, such a love that Jesus displays, is seen and experienced, and something happens inside..a knot somewhere is untangled..something like a wall is dismantled..that Love doesn't dismantle YOU, but it dismantles the lies that you've heard all your life and even told yourself all your life..lies about yourself, about God, about your relationship, about how He feels about you, about your worth..
Something crumbles inside, and like a quiet inner avalanche hurt feelings and thoughts are released and dissipated and there is a relief, a gentle peace that ensues, a calmness like a quietly flowing river, deep and wide and gentle, carrying you along.
A quiet yet strong truth has emerged, dawned upon your troubled mind: You're not the monster you thought you were - you are beautiful, you are sweet, you are wanted, you are loved! You're a treasure, that's what you are, a diamond, stardust, a jewel made of finest gold, worthy, precious, 'of finest quality!' How good and sweet and lovely you are, how pure and true! And...How you are loved! Held! Known, understood, embraced, supported! How safe you are! Now and forever, you belong, you are beloved, you are HOME!
