And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Pretend that you have an old Formula One race car you drive around town. Now, this probably would outperform any other normal car from a full stop, right? Yes, but people would be quick to point out that the comparison wasn’t fair because your car was designed for a racetrack. Most would not dare a contest because of this. The comparison between this race car and a standard vehicle would be absurd. However, when compared to vehicles racing on pro courses today, it is old and would not likely measure up. That would be a real comparison against vehicles it was designed to compete with. If you compared your old Formula One car to my pickup truck, I would just laugh, as the comparison makes no sense.
In the same way, many try to compare their righteousness to man-made standards, when righteousness was always defined by God, and his standard, according to his law, was perfection. So it is just as absurd to go to the God of the universe and try and argue that my righteousness meets some lower standard, when he designed my life to be lived as a vessel for his holiness. The question is, am I (or are you) comparing my old race car righteousness to people’s righteousness in the world around me? If so, why? This world is the domain of the prince of darkness, Satan. The world does not value righteous living. It is not a true comparison. Instead, I must compare to the performance standards God has — perfection. When I do this I understand: 1) the depth of my sin, and 2) the absolute need I have to be rescued by a Savior!
And so Jesus came to earth and he made a way for us to be right with God. His “righteousness car”raced the race of life to perfection, and yet he paid the penalty of dying for our sin, so we could live. And now, God has given his followers new life in him. It’s like he sent Jesus and the Holy Spirit into our lives to build out a brand new race car of righteousness that outperforms anything we could have ever imagined building on our own! We can be RIGHTEOUS to a standard (and at a level) that will BLOW THIS WORLD AWAY! The designer and sustainer of our high performance vehicle is Jesus Christ, and the fuel every day is our filling by the Holy Spirit!
Thank you, Father, for my new race car of righteousness! May I live as if you built this new life for me — which in fact you did. Help my performance to reflect my designer!
