Devotionals
"Open to me the [temple] gates of righteousness; I will enter through them, and I will confess and praise the Lord.
"This is the gate of the Lord; the [uncompromisingly] righteous shall enter through it.
"I will confess, praise, and give thanks to You, for You have heard and answered me; and You have become my Salvation and Deliverer." (Psalm 118:19-21, Amp)
How can we be in right standing with God and come fearlessly into His presence? Through the gates of righteousness!!... and they have to be opened for us, so that we can walk in.
Well then, what are the gates of righteousness? I think Jesus made it clear when He said:
"Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life." (John 10:9-10, NLT)
I shared this verse the other day, but in the sense going out through the gate into a spacious place of abundance. But before we can go out, and experience God's abundance, we must first come in to His presence... to a place of security ... to a place of assurance ... to a place of protection... to a place of comfort.... to a place where we stand with confidence before God, free of guilt, knowing that He loves us.
The good news is, that JESUS has done that for us. He has opened for us access to the Father's presence. He is our gate called righteousness.... right standing with God.
"But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
23 "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus." (Romans 3:21-26, NLT)
The very moment He died, this access was made open. There was a curtain in the temple that separated the most holy place (representing the very presence of God). Only the High Priest could enter into it, and then, only once a year. He would go in and make the necessary sacrifice for the sins of the people, and make atonement (making them "at one" with God) for them. But when Jesus died, His death did this for us once and for all, so that now we can have free access to the Father's presence.
The gate is open!! All we need to do with walk through, and we do that by believing in Jesus.
Here's some more passages that talk about that:
"So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most." (Hebrew 4:14-16, NLT)
"We who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek." (Hebrews 6:18b-20, NLT)
Jesus IS our gate!! So we can rejoice and sing with the Psalmist:
"I will praise You, for You have answered me, and have become my salvation." (v21, NKJ)
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