Description
Righteousness Delivers from Death
This episode reflects on Proverbs 11:4, emphasising the biblical theme that righteous… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
The principle of being saved from God’s wrath through righteousness, which we see ultimately in the cross of Christ, is a thread that runs through the entirety of scripture. We meditate today on Proverbs 11, verse four, which includes this thread. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
In my private devotionals, I’ve just been reading Ezekiel chapter nine, where God’s messengers are tasked with this job of putting a mark on the forehead of those in Jerusalem who have despaired over the moral and religious decay that they’ve seen in the city. And those ones with a mark on their forehead are then spared God’s wrath.
Why? Because of righteousness. So this is one picture of how the righteousness delivers us from the death that would otherwise come.
When we cling to the cross of Christ, when we say God have mercy on me, a sinner, we then receive the righteousness of the perfect Son and that delivers us from death. Riches are not going to save us, having all the best toys, the nicest house or car, having the fanciest friends, none of that is going to be of any profit to us in the day of wrath, in the day of judgment. It will not save us.
It might make us feel like we have a slightly better time in this life, though that’s an illusion, but it will not add a single day to the time that we can spend in eternity in the presence of God. So my friends let us not pursue riches, rather let us pursue righteousness and thus be delivered from death.
