The Holy and Righteous One

“But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you” (Acts 3:14)

Isn’t it ironic that when God took on human form and walked among men, religious leaders were the worst to Him?  They accused Jesus of satanism (Matthew 12:24).  They called him a glutton and a drunkard (Luke 7:34).  The leaders did that; not a fringe group, not a silent minority, it was those that would have known scripture the most, those who dedicated their lives to following the Word, these were the men that persecuted Jesus more than anybody and had the least recognition of God in the flesh as He stood before them.  Jesus called them “blind guides” (Matthew 15:14).  They were the ones who should have been the first to recognize the Messiah standing before them, but instead they rejected Him.

There is no excuse for denying Jesus.  Even if you have never heard of Him, creation itself cries out His name (Romans 1:20).  He is the Holy and Righteous One.  At advent, we are celebrating His coming.  We need Him.  We are lost without Him.  He has not hidden Himself nor His will for us but has revealed everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).   His first coming was proclaimed with hundreds of prophecies before He was ever born.  And though Jesus walked among us, He was completely set apart from us. What a dichotomy.  Do you see it?  We can never be near God because He is so holy and set apart, the only way we could be reconciled to God was for Him to come down to us, to put on our flesh, live a perfect and holy life in our place, and offer Himself as a sacrifice for our sin. When He rose from death, Jesus conquered all of our unrighteousness once and for all.  We are now considered holy and righteous because are covered with the holy and righteous blood of Jesus. 

The tragedy of the religious leaders is that they were so blinded by self-righteousness they had no recognition of what true righteousness looks like when it was right in front of them.  They knew so much about God but did not know Him personally.  We can read and study and learn all we want, but if that knowledge puffs us up so much that we find ourselves in a place that we are looking down upon the Holy and Righteous One, we’ve missed everything.  Jesus is Holy, He is set apart.  He is different.  When He walked on this earth people noticed.  There is no middle ground with Jesus. The question is will we worship Him, or will we reject Him?