Inked Again!

I did it! And I am delighted!

From right to left it reads, Jehovah Tsidkenu (pronounced Sid Canoe) – and it means Christ is my Righteousness.

I love it dearly.

I love that it is testifies to the remarkable Truth God has been teaching me. I am not called to add anything to my salvation. Jesus has already done it all.

I am not to work to prove myself acceptable or approved as unto man, nor will my works add anything to the righteousness I already have in Christ!

If to stand before God, one must be righteous – blameless, deserving, faithful, guiltless, pure, sinless – I, in my sin nature, am screwed.  I have and will continue to fail miserably.

Sin has horribly and painfully disfigured my heart.

BUT.

Christ was all those things.  He was blameless, deserving, faithful, guiltless, pure, sinless.  He embodied Righteousness.

Romans 3:22-23 says “The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.“

So because Jesus is in me, his Righteousness covers me.

Christ in me makes me Worthy. Perfected. Complete. Lacking nothing. Right with God.

Indeed, Righteous.

Man is not my Righteousness, Works are certainly not my Righteousness.

Hallelujah! Christ alone is my Righteousness.

It’s that simple.

Anything good in me is a response to what Christ has done for me, but it adds nothing to my salvation.

I love the permanence of this on my soul and now on my right wrist. It is a tangible, visible reminder of who Christ says I am.

No matter the lies the enemy levels against me through the world, this Truth remains.

In Christ, I am found Righteous.

I’m havin’ me a little church right here on my wrist! Amen and Amen!!

If you’re interested in more -

As I was searching God’s Word for the full meaning of Jehovah Tsidkenu, I found this perfect story of how God credited Abraham’s faith to him as righteousness.  Of course, Abraham lived before the Lord sent Christ as fulfillment of His covenant with us, but the continuity from Old Testament to New Testament is beautiful!  You can read the whole thing in Romans 4, if you’d like, but let me share this about God’s promise to Abraham that He would be the father of many nations:

^19-25Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, “It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child.” Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up. He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That’s why it is said, “Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right.” But it’s not just Abraham; it’s also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.”

John 3:16-18 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

If you have questions about your own relationship with God, I would love to talk with you anytime!

Tagged as: faith, tattoo