Justified!

You had good reasons to act the way you did! You started with only the best motives, you know! It wasn't you who made things go wrong! You were the victim. Someone else twisted everything because that wasn't how you meant it to be. You can't be blamed because you did your best!

Making excuses is what happens when you are trying to justify yourself. If we've followed our own standards, our own rules, then it's supposed to make it okay, excusable. I mean, we had reasons to act as we did! Our anger will not permit us to see it any other way. We're rationalizing ourselves away from the truth.

By those same standards, our own, isn't it tempting to think that something, anything, about ourselves, or what we can do, is gonna save us! We want to be prepared, want to dot all of our i's and cross all of our t's, so as to have our bags packed for heaven. Again, we did our best, and again, our reasoning is leading us away from the truth. Following the law is acting a part, it's worshipping a description, rather than a person. If we think we can achieve the goal of matching the description of the character of God ourselves, then we don't need Him, we don't need God at all!

Whether what we offer up is according to our own rules, or whether we follow a script, it's all about us. If we do anything, anything at all, to save ourselves, or keep ourselves saved, then we are usurping God's authority: "Whatever is not of faith is sin."Romans 14:23

The evidence of a justified man is humbleness! His acts of love and obedience come, not from a desire to prove himself, but from an awareness of just how much his redemption cost, and of the beauty and worthiness of Him whom he serves. This man mourns, while desperately wishing he could change the past, wishes that there were something about himself that was worth something, anything at all, to the One who loved him. He knows he has nothing to offer. He can only surrender. Confronting love, he can only worship!

It's only the one who does not slough off, does not ignore his sins, who has felt their overwhelming weight, and been compelled to turn them over to the only One who can, and has, born that burden for him, despite his feelings of unworthiness, that is justified! "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled."Matthew 5:6  Righteousness, God's character of unfailing, sacrificial love, can only be gained as a gift from the Only one who IS perfect. Our yearning for perfect love can but drive us to the Source. It must be He, Himself, that we crave, obsess about, dream about, and worship! We must wait on Him to fill us with Himself! We must belong to Him, and want that, with every fiber of our being! When we trust only Him, when we are His, we are justified by Him! "It is God who justifies!"Romans 8:33