"I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture – John 10:9."
Our sin and our guilt tempt us not to wait. We think that He cannot be trusted, so we "deliver" ourselves. When imputed righteousness is fresh in our conscience and we feel the certainty of assurance, then we're willing to wait for deliverance. But, when guilt, past sins, and present failure attack the conscience, we THINK that we are forsaken (oh, we don't verbally say it), and therefore we must do something. But, hold on.
This is nothing but the devil and the flesh spouting out lies about the Person and character of our God. This is nothing but trying to stand in a righteousness that is moveable. And, if your righteousness is moveable… if the reason you're blessed from God is ever capable of change… if you can shrink or grow in goodness depending upon your present works, then you're not walking by faith in Christ. You're walking by faith in good works, which is nothing but SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS.
We must battle this dragon of self-righteousness at all times; this hideous monster makes us so proud that we actually believe the good we experienced yesterday was because WE were good the day before. And, this notion of self-righteousness is the only thing that makes us believe ourselves unblessable, when we've fallen into the ditch of sin.
Let us ever exalt Christ upon His throne as the IMMOVEABLE Object God sees. Let us ever make Him to be what He is, the absolute and only reason of all blessedness. All the grace that God shall ever give – whether it's grace to rejoice or grace to endure hardship –comes to us entirely because of Him.
He fulfilled all righteousness on behalf of His sinful people. He took it upon Himself to deliver us from our offences and justify us in His shed blood – "And [God who is rich in mercy] hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6)." Therefore, when the Father accepted Him, He accepted us to the same degree. Therefore, our standing before God and fitness for blessing is not associated with our behavior in this present life; our standing with God is entirely dependent upon our acceptance in Christ – our inclusion with Him in the everlasting covenant. If He fails, then we're hopeless. If He succeeds, God raises Him from the dead and raises us up to immediately sit with Him. We are ONE with Christ, and this union is the source of all blessing (Eph. 1:3-7).
If ever you need something from God Almighty, you have nothing else to petition Him than "For the glory of His Son". For the glory of His Son, God Almighty will give any grace to any sinner. The sinner's works and person are irrelevant. The only thing that is of any significance is how God Almighty feels about the Person, work, labors, and sufferings of His only begotten Son. If He highly esteems Christ, then the Father will give every spiritual blessing to everyone that comes in His name – (John 16:23-24) "… Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." (I John 5:14-15) "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."
Now, on the basis of this great righteousness, let us ask the Father for the promises that we need. Let us enter the Word of God as JUSTIFIED children and obtain the fruits that we have never labored for. Nothing can be more honoring to Christ Jesus than for us, ruined in ourselves and totally undeserving, to freely obtain righteousness and grace by Him. In this, we don't have to be ashamed, or feel like we're intruding where we don't belong. Christ died for us, not just so that we could stand around the outskirts of the kingdom, but also so that we can enter in with full assurance. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus… Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith… (Heb. 10:19, 22)."
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