The Filthy Rag

"As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;" Romans 3:10-12 (NIV)

We used to repeat this at church (crossings) every sunday when we had corporate confession. I really liked the way we did confession - going through a number of different scriptures reminding us of not only our sinful nature butour position of righteousness through Christ. The scriptures that we would read every week often go through my head and come to me when I need them.

I think that it is important to remember that we are not righteous because it emphasizes our need for Christ, without whom we would burn. As we live through small victories in our life we think of them as personal victories, as something I did, something I won, something I achieved. For a follower of Christ there is no such thing as a personal victory, as everything good is from Christ and all I am able to do is through him. But this is actually a comforting thought, truly. You wouldn't think giving someone else all the credit would be, but the Lord doesn't want credit he wants our love and devotion.

Here is where it is comforting.... Christ loves us enough to share his victory with us and loves us enough to bring us victory(s) in our own life in so many ways, and his intention is not to gain "credit" but to enjoy everything with us, to celebrate with us, to experience with us. There is a word there that I can't think of in our language - nor in another. But I am trying to get at the relationship or the spending time with part of the relationship with Christ - the intimacy - there thats kind of what I mean. But like eternal intimacy on a much bigger scale than what we can imagine. That is what He seeks from us, not credit, though He is all deserving.

My righteousness is in Christ alone and my good deeds without him are like fiilthy rags. And that is comforting, because I don't have to be without him. Or something.