The Gift That Confounds

Rectify – to correct a matter which only you can solve.

Rom 3:20-24 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be rectified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (21) But now the rectification of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; (22) Even the rectification of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: (23) For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (24) Being rectified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

In the past we’ve been instructed from this passage that righteousness/justification is the appropriate response from the position of God towards us. The danger in this thought is that all righteousness/justification concepts come from our knowledge of good and evil. Jesus claims quite frankly that God is not “good” defeating the basis of being righteous. So what then does Paul mean?

Consider the more appropriate term “rectify.” The work God accomplished in Christ could only be done by Him as the creator. The problem, the issue of mankind’s faults could only be corrected by the one who created the being, not the one who created problem.

We appear to be righteous, as well as justified in our own righteousness within the arena of our human problem. However, we are never righteous if God is the standard, or metric, of our goodness, and hence never justified in our actions. We after all crucified Jesus.

Yet, we are rectified by this crucifixion. Humanity has been set right or corrected by the unexplainable action of killing God. The message of grace is that there is no difference in any of us either as those who have fallen from the glory of God and those who have received the gift of rectification. The gift is for all who believe in the faith of Jesus.

We don’t believe “in Jesus” or “on Jesus” as being God. We believe the faith Jesus had to place himself as the rectifying agent of God for all humanity. It is his belief to endure the cross that enables all of us to be declared sons of God and sit at the right hand of the Father. It is his belief that we do not know what we are doing that offers us his Spirit to show us all things. We are rectified by the belief, the faith of Jesus, never by anything we can do or any rules that we follow which declare us to be on the right path.

Some gifts we receive are accepted with gracious resolve toward our betterment in life. Other gifts, they confound us simply by the unfathomable ability of it to penetrate our paradigms. The rectifying event of Christ, the incarnation, passion, death, resurrection and ascension is a gift in a class all by itself. It confounds while it resolves. The more you look into it the more dumbfounded you become, but, the more grateful too.

Quit looking on the surface for answers that doctrines supply and plunge into the depths of God by the Spirit which resides within you. Only there will you come to understand those things which eyes have not seen and ears have not heard. Only there will you lose your righteousness to the marvels of grace.