Becoming Oaks of Righteousness
Jesus read verses from Isaiah 61 at his hometown of Nazareth when he began his ministry. Isaiah had prophesied these words about the coming of the Messiah over 600 years before and Jesus opened the scroll and read these words to fulfill this prophecy:
Isaiah 61:1-3. “THE Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD (Jehovah) hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees (oaks) of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.”
Jesus read this passage through the phrase, “to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” This was the purpose of his first coming. At his second coming He will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords when he proclaims “the day of vengeance of our God.”
Even though we are in are “the acceptable year of the Lord,” we can still rest assured that he binds up the broken-hearted and “comforts all that mourn.” Despite the tribulation, distress, pain, and disappointments of this world, God is still on the throne. He is sovreign over all. He never says, “I didn’t see that coming.” He’s never caught off guard. When we run to our Lord in our pain and grief, he will give us beauty for ashes, the oil of Joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit I of heaviness that we may be called “oaks of righteousness.”
According to Ecclesiastes 7:2-4,: “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that (death) is the end of all men; and the living will take this to heart.
Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”
Three weeks ago many of us in our Influencers Band of Brothers were blessed to attend the memorial service for Pete’s wife Suzan. All who attended were confronted about the reality that in this life, the mortality rate is 100%. However, we mourn not as others who have no hope. Suzan’s life was a witness and a living testimony of the good news of the gospel of Christ.
For each person that hears the Gospel there are four responses. The first response is to reject it outright. For these people, their heart is not ready to turn around, repent, and surrender all. The gospel confronts them with the truth that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. However, they have not reached the point of “conviction” and prefer to continue in sin.
Most church goers are in the second and third categories. Those in the second category are the ones who go to church and are nudged in the direction of “repentance unto salvation” but the exchange never happens in their hearts. Even though they walk down the aisle and are baptized, they live in Romans 7 where the “law of sin and death” separates us from a true and living relationship with our Lord. They have not come to an understanding of Romans 8, the “law of the spirit of life in Christ.”
Those in the third category belong to a certain “denomination” and say “Jesus is Lord” but don’t really mean it. These are the ones that Jesus talked about in Matthew 2:21-23 when he said: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
These people think they are saved, but they have not “done the will of my Father.” What is the “will of the Father” concerning salvation? According to Romans 10:9-10, they have not “confessed Jesus as Lord and believed in their hearts that God has raised him from the dead.” They believe in their own righteousness instead of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection on our behalf.
The fourth category is those of us who know that we know that we have received salvation. We who have been “born again of the spirit of life in Christ” have done a “180 degree turn” and have changed Lordships. We are no longer our own lord. Salvation is not “who we are” but rather, “whose we are.” As the Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 1:12, “for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day (of judgement.)” For those of us who are in this category “the spirit (of God) bears witness with our spirit (of Christ in us) that we are sons of God.” Those who have been saved by grace, have accepted the free gift of salvation according to Ephesians 2:8, “for by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast.”
Jesus said, “whosoever will may come.” He woos everyone, but not all accept his offer to receive God’s gift of salvation. Today is “the acceptable year of the Lord.” Hebrews 3 says, don’t harden your hearts like Israel did when they were led out of bondage in Egypt: “harden not your hearts as in the day of provocation, as in the day of temptation in the wilderness.” All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. However, we who have accepted his gift of salvation have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. God sealed us by entrusting his Holy Spirit within us when we accepted Jesus Christ as Lord. This is similar to our marriage covenant with our wives. When we take our marriage vows, one of the “covenants and conditions” is that “we’ll be under constant surveillance of our wives.” When we love our wives, we don’t want to do anything to disappoint her… we don’t want to break our fellowship with her by violating our sacred covenant of trust. Similarly when we were saved, God called us to live “holy.” “Sanctification” or “holiness” means to be “set apart for the purpose for which he designed us.” This is not a burden. We gladly submit because we love him. When we’re walking in fellowship with our Lord, when we’ve lovingly surrendered our hearts to him, doing his will is the joy and rejoicing of our heart.
However, our Heavenly Father knows that because we’re still human, we will sometimes stray from the “straight and narrow way.” Even though we’re still saved, we break fellowship with our Lord by trusting our own way instead of His way. When we stray, he still loves us and gives us a way to return our hearts back to him: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9). The job of the Holy Spirit is to lead us into the “all truth” for Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. The Holy Spirit will “check us” so that we can “confess our sins” and maintain our fellowship with him. Our prayer, is “blot out our transgressions.” We’re guilty as charged when we stray. However, our Lord doesn’t beat us up when we sin. Jesus Christ didn’t come to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. Today is the “acceptable year of the Lord.” He didn’t come to “kick us when we’re down.” He loves us much more that we could ever love ourselves. He came to set us free from the bondage of resentment and bitterness, to heal our broken heart and to open our blinded eyes. This is the freedom that we have in Christ: He set us captives free when confess that we’re broken by our own sins. Jesus Christ shed his innocent blood to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The purpose of the cross is that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him. When we understand and accept his grace and forgiveness, then we can give it away: “I forgave and set the prisoner free, only to find that the prisoner was me.”
What’s the difference between an oak and a seedling? An oak has stood the test of time. It has persevered through the ages… through good times and bad. When we turned to him for salvation he planted us as a seedling in the holy ground of his Word. When we faithfully return to him for fellowship, like the oak tree that has endured over many seasons of life, he will give us beauty for ashes, the oil of Joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit I of heaviness that we may be called “oaks of righteousness” to the glory of our Lord.
May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael