“Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.”
– Psalm 24:3-4
This is what it takes to enter the presence of God: clean hands (your actions are perfectly without sin), a pure heart (your thoughts are perfectly without sin), a soul that only delights in truth and worships the one true God, and a tongue that never, ever shades the truth. Does that describe you??? If you say yes, you’re lying to yourself (1 John 1:8)!
So what are we to do? God made us to be in relationship with Him. We long to be in relationship with Him. But He is pure, holy, righteous, good, and just. He can permit no unrighteousness to come before Him. How do we escape this conundrum? There’s only one way!
God made the way through His eternal Son Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only one who had truly clean hands, a pure heart, a soul fully committed to God, and a perfectly honest tongue. He lived the life we can’t, then He sacrificed that life on a cross, paying for our sins with His innocent, fully divine and fully human blood. His sacrifice canceled the debt of all who believe in Him and commit their life to following Him.
As a follower of Jesus, God credits the righteousness of Jesus to us because Christ lives within us. When we believe in Him, we are united with Him, and we are made righteous, standing before God as new creations in Christ, no matter what lies in our past.
Now for the most important question in your life… Does that describe you??? If you say no, what’s holding you back from following Christ in faith? We would love to talk about that with you.