In Him

I'm still working, off and on, at memorizing Psalm 37. I've not been able to focus my attention on it as much as I'd like (partly due to the demands of educating my Crew, and partly due to my own laziness). As I practiced my most recent verses, I was amazed anew at the price Christ paid on my account. Here are the verses.

The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip. The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to put him to death. The LORD will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial. Wait for the LORD and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off.
Psalms 37:29-34

I would love to be the "righteous" described throughout this Psalm, but I'm not. Jesus told the rich young ruler that no one is good but God. No one is truly righteous except Christ. So verse 33 really stood out to me. The LORD will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial. But when Jesus stood before Pilate, He WAS condemned, and sentenced to death. And when He hung on the cross, He cried out to His Father, "why have you forsaken me?" What is that, if not being abandoned? The Righteous One was abandoned and condemned in the place of the wicked. In MY place. In YOUR place, if you believe.

And now we have peace with God in Christ. We are children of God in Christ. Paul tells the Corinthians:

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
2 Corinthians 1:19-20

As I read through Ephesians this week, I counted over twenty times that Paul talks about us being in Christ, and the blessings we receive because of it. And because of this identity in Christ, he urges them to act in a manner consistent with that identity. Dear Christian, remember who you are. You are a beloved child of God IN CHRIST!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Ephesians 1:3-10