Devotion for Sunday, March 8, The Second Sunday of Lent
Psalm 118:19–29 | This is the gate of the Lord.
How do I gain access to God? How do I get in to see him, and set forth my case? On what basis will He let me in?
A proper question. Today’s passage from Psalm 118 refers to a ceremony by which an applicant would ask for admittance to the Temple, at the gates. He would be told, formulaically but truly: “This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.”
How do I get in? By virtue of my righteousness. There is no other way. The qualification to see God righteousness.
No wonder the church has made so much of Another’s righteousness. If I need absolute righteousness in order to gain God’s presence, but I plainly, experientially, do not have it, then I must get it from another. Thus the concept, so dear to Paul and Isaiah before him, of our being “regarded” righteous. Through Christ, we hear in the New Testament, we are accounted righteous. That is, his purity is ascribed to us. We “achieve” acceptance on the basis of Another’s work, which in the kingdom of God is the only way access is possible. It is not unfair, it is necessary, and it is the way God planned it.
To quote The Four Seasons, “Let’s change our sad rags into glad rags,” and we shall enter the Temple of the Lord.