Dave's Diary

Prayer

Before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 119:15-16

Lord, I come to meditate on Your precepts and to consider Your ways. Open my heart that I may delight in Your decrees and never neglect your word. Amen.

Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word.

Reading

Matthew 5:17-20

Let’s start the week with the best possible news. Because you have faith in Jesus you are already righteous. In other words, you have already been brought into right standing with God through your faith in Jesus Christ. You already have a “righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law” as Jesus put it.

Remember, no one can earn right standing with God on the basis of our own goodness, because we all sin and fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23) Yet, wondrously, as God assures us in Philippians 3:9, disciples of Jesus have been given the free gift of a righteousness that comes not from the law but through faith in Christ – faith in the One who has Himself fulfilled all the requirements of the Law! As a believer, you have been brought home to a right relationship with God, as a free gift, and you are as “right with God” (righteous) as His Son Jesus Christ is. You are already a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven. That is God’s amazing grace.

The only thing left to do now is to live up to the righteousness you already have … to truly live as a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven. And that is where Jesus’ command for today comes in.

Jesus calls His followers to honour the Old Testament Law as a clear indication of that which is pleasing to God – what we might call the “moral law of God”. The Old Testament commands reveal God’s character and how God wants His people to live as His representatives. This is how we are to live – not to earn God’s favour, but because we are already in God’s favour by grace.

In today’s reading, Jesus calls us not to abandon the revelation of the Old Testament, but to live up to it. A Christian disciple with a heart of love for God will neither approach the Old Testament Law as a set of rules to be obeyed legalistically, nor as rules to disregarded as irrelevant. Instead, loving God will move us to search the moral code of the Old Testament for clarity on what is pleasing to God … so that we can LOVE GOD more effectively by living lives that are pleasing to Him.

Contemplation

Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn one or more of these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ:

• I am righteous – I am in right standing with God – by grace!
• I am a citizen of God’s Kingdom!
• I will search God’s Word to know how to please my beloved King.
• I will live this day in a way that pleases Him!

Heavenly Father, may my life today be a thank offering to You, for saving me, bringing me home, and making me righteous by Your grace, through my faith in Jesus Christ Your Son. Amen.