Who are considered “the righteous” according the Lord Jesus Christ? Who will shine like the sun in the kingdom of God? Why would the Lord Jesus say that ‘who has ears, let him hear.’? Let’s focus on these three questions.
Psalm 31:24 ESV “Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD!”
The Psalmist addresses all the people who wait for the Lord God. His motivation is devotional and relational. He touches upon two essential aspects of human control system: mind and heart. These two areas of our life play a foundational role in establishing a rich and satisfying relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. King Solomon says, “[5] Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. [6] In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. [7] Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. …(Proverbs 3:5-7 ESV)
The prophet Jeremiah states, “[23] Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, …(Jeremiah 9:23 ESV) When David was handing the charge to his son Solomon, he said, “[9] “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. (1 Chronicles 28:9 ESV)
In all these three discourses, the godly men like Solomon, Jeremiah and David with their wholehearted sense and sensibilities have given importance to one thing in life: giving our heart and mind to the Lord Jesus Christ. If our thoughts, desires and understanding are not subject to the gospel of Christ, our behavioural patterns will not be conformed to the likeness of Christ; the inmost desires of our heart will be tempered with the worldly scholarship, and we finally end up with trusting our ways and means.
Hebrews 10:23 ESV “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”
St. Paul encourages us to not to give up on something that is vital to our Bible believing life. This Bible believing life propels us to confess the Lord Jesus Christ our only hope. And the Lord enables us to press forward to such a Christ centred hope without any second thoughts.
We do hold fast to our second thoughts, because we are bent upon our efforts to move towards repentance. We take pleasure in giving more weights to our manmade ordinance than believing in the done deal of the Lord Jesus Christ. What can take away our sins if not the blood of Jesus Christ? Who can forgive our transgressions if not our Lord Jesus Christ? It is neither law nor rituals instituted by worship Centers that deliver us from our sins and offer salvation. It is the sacrificial atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ that has brought Salvation to us.
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Our God designs a specific plan for all of us, because He has chosen us to be His elect or nation before the foundation of the world. It is very sad to focus more on the worldy affairs and determine our course of action in the future. When Our Lord Jesus holds our future, we try our best to live out our daily life conforming to the patterns of the world. We need to understand the fact that nobody can change the plan of God that He has already designed for His people. Thus the chosen ones should come back to the Lord Jesus and submit their will. As Paul states in Hebrew 12:1-2, let us set aside our old manner of life and embrace the Christ-fashioned life so that we can fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus and run for the sake of the gospel of Christ. If it is not our primary goal, we will soon end up with corrupt and deceitful dreams and desires. We will pledge our allegiance to deny the Lord Jesus and his precious gospel of the truth. Our very life will be filled with compromises and all inclusive kind of secular attitudes toward the risen Saviour.
We may not know the entire design of our life, but He knows about it. Many things may seem coincidental to our mind, but God is behind every aspect of our life. All we can do is to obey His commandments and leave the consequences to Christ. As a fact of the matter, the Lord Jesus Christ sees the beginning from the end and He has the clear picture of any outcome or results in regards to earthly and eternal lives. God is certain about His peoples’ life on earth, because He has predestined us, called us, justified us and has glorified us. What a great privilege it is! He has already done a great thing in our life. It means He has saved us to be His people and His nation. What more good things do we want?
Matthew 5:3 ESV “”Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
This verse addresses two key points: those who are poor in spirit blessed and they own the kingdom of heaven. Who is considered the poor in spirit? How does the kingdom of heaven belong to them? Thus our Lord Jesus is concerned about ‘the poor-in-spirit-condition’ and ‘kingdom-of-heaven-state’.
Psalm 33:5 ESV “He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.”
Our Lord God is known for his quality of being morally right, blamelessness, honesty, sinlessness, and irreproachability. He is for fair-mindedness, impartialness, and for lack of prejudice. Our God is not empowered by all these attributes, because they are not defined by human beings. His nature is morally upright, honest, sinless, irreproachable, fair-minded, impartial and unbiased.
3 John 11 ESV “Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.”
God is not evil and evil minded. When He created the earth and its creation, He found them good and Jesus Christ was doing good things all through his ministry for all. Even the Pilot, before sending Jesus to the Cross couldn’t find any wrong or evil in Him.
Proverbs 19:21 ESV “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.”
We humans have the greater ability to conceive ideas and outlook beyond one’s imagination. Our dreams are always traveling to the far extreme, because our mind has such power to build powerful models of living and non living essentials. But the book of Proverbs says that God’s idea and outlook are firm and long standing. All our earthly plans never stand for ever, but God’s ultimate purpose for our salvation in the world.
The prophet Isaiah foretells the arrival of the Lord Jesus and of his sole purpose stating “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.“(Isaiah 9:6-7 ESV) It is God’s eternal plane for the humanity that the world would need Jesus as its Saviour. It is God’s perfect plan that Jesus would come to the earth to save sinners, die on the cross, buried under the earth and on the third day would rise from the dead to rule us forever in our hearts. It doesn’t stop thee, but he would come soon as a judge to judge the entire world. And that day is not far away.