THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE CLEAN-HANDED APPRAISED

TUESDAY 21 JUNE 2022

God has chosen His people in Christ before the foundation of this world, to walk blamelessly before Him. And today we are going to consider the righteous soul who walks perfectly, righteously, and safely in the right path, as well as the clean-handed who has continued to grow in strength by conforming to the principles of holiness, day by day, through the empowering influence of the deep knowledge of God and practice of His will.

Reference: Job 17:9 New Living Translation (NLT) "The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger."

Here the righteous and those with clean hands are carefully weighed up and their habitual inclination is clearly analysed. Who are the righteous? The righteous are the people who have received God's righteousness by the virtue of new birth in Christ and by divine revelation. The Bible made it clear that nobody can become a righteous person in God's sight on his own merit or by his good works, except by faith in Christ's finished work on the cross (see Romans 3:20 NIV). Simply put, the righteous are people who have been justified by faith in Christ and are made right with God; now their nature is righteousness and for this reason, they live and walk by faith according to God's Word.

So, one of ascriptions or a hallmark of the righteous is that their lives have been planned for a specific purpose - which is to move forward ever. In another way, they have been programmed to enjoy a perennial spring of cumulative success and progress because their existence is ordered by God's revealed truth. Specifically, here is how the righteous move forward: By paying attention to God's law which is replete with divine truths - and by acting accordingly. As a result, they grow in grace and increase more and more in all they do. Their pathway is secured by the righteous meditations of their thoughts and their steps are ordered by acting on the Word because they love and trust God.

On the other hands, in a prolonged experience, those with clean hands become stronger and stronger in morality and integrity. Now how does this happen? As they experience God through crisis or challenging situations, they grow in faith such that no matter what comes their way, they are only influenced to wax stronger and get better overtime with flashes of divine inspiration due to their upright heart. The Bible says, "Who may ascend onto the mountain of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to what is false, Nor has sworn [oaths] deceitfully" (Psalm 24:3-4). In other words, they have no business with idol worship or fetish practices. Their entire confidence is in God, not in any other thing or god. So God calls them the clean-handed and the pure-hearted. They have completely appointed themselves to be consecrated, never to step out of God's will or touch any unclean thing. They sincerely delight in the decrees of God, and correspondingly, they are firmly established by them.

Now did you grasp the clarity of disparity between the righteous and those with clean hands? In general, the righteous are all who have received Christ, the sun of righteousness, as their Saviour and are saved by grace; hence the glory of Christ is continually beheld by them all, to ever-increasing degree as they walk with God. But in the light of specific knowledge, those with clean hands are also the righteous but have made up their minds to go deeper in the practice of perfecting holiness.

In another way, the clean-handed makes every aspect of his life the manifestation of God's will because he turns it into principles of action, which in turn, reflects the depth of his Christian character and faith. His light shines more and more brightly in Christ because his level of walk with God has grown deep in roots and so he increases from strength to strength. He is truly committed to loving God and has accepted God's Word as the final authority that governs his actions.

How can the righteous walk with clean hands and become stronger and stronger in it? Paul explained this in 2 Corinthians 7:1 (NLT): "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Psalm 1:1-3; Proverbs 21:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Titus 2:11-12.

Guided Prayer: Thank you Father in heaven because you hold a good success in store for the righteous and you remain a shield and strength to those whose hands are blameless. I'm progressive and full of gush of favour because with great zeal, I serve you in spirit and in truth. Hence, my life gets better, my faith wax stronger and my light shines brightly as the light of the efficacious knowledge of your will is continually revealed in my spirit. Thank you Father for my continued lifestyle characterized by the practice of righteous living and holiness, which in turn, grants me an increasing strength and the fountain of heavenly radiance, in Jesus' Name, Amen!