Christ's Sheep Are Beheld Righteous In Christ's Righteousness

"In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve."—Jeremiah 50:20.

If thou art in Christ, thou art beheld righteous in his righteousness; and, as thy Surety, what he wrought, and what he suffered, was for thee. So that, in this sense, thou art, as Christ tells the church, all fair, and there is no spot in thee. So that, amidst all thy groans for the remains of indwelling sin, (and groan thou dost daily,) and as thou sometimes art prompted to think, there is growing imperfection in thee; yet, in Jesus, as thou art found and beheld in him, sin is pardoned, and thy person accepted, and thou art in a state of justification before God in the righteousness of God thy Saviour. And, as this is so essential to be known and enjoyed, see to it, my soul, that thou livest upon it. Go in the strength of Christ's righteousness every day to the throne, pleading that righteousness, and that only. And, under a perfect conviction that not a single sin of thine was left out when Jesus bore the sins of his people on the tree, beg for grace to exercise faith, and to know that in Jesus thou art justified before God, and that God hath cast all thy sins into the depths of the sea.

- excerpt from Robert Hawker's The Poor Man's Morning and Evening Portions, September 9, Morning