The Righteous Rise Again
The Proverbs say: “The righteous fall seven times and rises again.” (Proverbs 24.16) This is so true. Those that know God just don’t quit. Everyone falls, whether it be falling into sin, or temptation or the flesh, but what is important is what comes next. Does he stay down? Does he curse God and blame others? Or does he shake off the dirt and get back up? David Livingstone, a pioneer missionary and medical doctor in Africa, said: “I have determined never to stop until I have come to the end and achieved my purpose.” In the nineteenth century, Livingstone was the first missionary to take the Gospel into the interior of Africa. He confronted hostel tribes, disease and many hardships as he went from Angola to Mozambique and South Africa to Kenya. He could have quit at any time, but his faith lifted him up. He said: “I will go anywhere, provided it is forward.”
The righteous are those who have had their sins forgiven and who have been born again. Righteousness is not earned but imputed to those who believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Paul told the Corinthians that by being in Christ they have become the righteousness of God. (II Cor. 5.21) Righteousness is being in a right standing with God. Through the blood of Jesus, sin has been atoned for. Forgiveness cleanses away the sin that had separated us from God and makes us as if we had never sinned. We receive forgiveness by confessing our sins before God. I John 1.9 says: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
John goes on to say that if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. (2.1) Instead of being condemned we are forgiven. Instead of staying down, we can rise again. Staying down is to remain in our sin. Staying down is to accept condemnation and defeat. Everyone falls, but it’s the righteous who rise again. Confess your sin. Receive forgiveness. Now, get up and start walking forward again. Did you note that Jesus Christ is our righteousness? Because He is, we are. We are in Christ and Christ is in us. Just as the Scriptures say: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (II Cor. 5.17)
After falling you may feel that it is impossible to get up again, but just remember that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. (I John 4.4) Jesus is Super. We are men and women. So what does that make us when Jesus is in our lives? Supermen and Superwomen! Getting back up is in the strength of the Lord, and not our own. Mere men live out of their flesh; out of their human strength and nature. That is why they fall into strife, lust and jealousy. But living out of the inner man; out of the divine nature of Christ in us, we become more than conquerors. With Christ we can rise up with wings like eagles. We can run and not become weary. We can walk and not faint. (Is. 40.31)
Look where you want to go, not where you don’t want to go. When Peter looked to the Lord, he walked on the water, but when he looked down at the circumstances, he began to fall. Peter thought that as a man he could forgive up to seven times. But, Jesus said that he could forgive up to 70 times 7. Man has his limits. Superman does not. So even if you fall seven times, you can rise up again.
Scriptures to meditate on:
Prov. 24.16; I Cor. 3.3; Rom. 4.5-6; II Cor. 5.21; I John 1.9; 4.4; Rom. 8.37