Do Right, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly with God
GCI President Update | March 2024
Every year during Holy Week, my prayers for each of you are more frequent as we celebrate the pivotal events that lead up to Resurrection Sunday. I pray that the joy and hope of Easter burst forth into your life in new ways, this year.
During this season of Easter Preparation, I have been reflecting on Micah 6.
Micah 6:8 is one of the most quoted scriptures, “O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
What a rich and noble life to live under these imperatives “To do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” But how?
I resonate with the Apostle Paul – I know what is right and I desire to do what is right, but O Wretched Man that I am. I keep falling down. Who shall deliver me from this body of death?
To gain clarity for Paul’s question, and to see the greater depth of Micah’s messianic prophecy we need to go back and begin in Micah 6:6
As I read through the passage I will add some reflective thoughts.
What can we bring to the LORD?
(What will appease God? What will make us acceptable?)
Should we bring him burnt offerings?
Should we bow before God Most High
with offerings of yearling calves?
(Does the expense of what we bring count? It’s not turtle doves here, but offspring of cattle.)
7 Should we offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
(Does the volume or abundance of what we bring mean anything?)
Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins?
(There’s no greater sacrifice than from our own flesh & blood. Is this what the Lord requires?)
8 No,
(It’s not the things that the people thought were important or impressive.)
O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah’s writing is messianic – a picture of what is to come through Christ. The long history of Israel and their sacrificial ceremonies was a mere shadow of what was to come. The “What” to come was in fact a “Who.” The who was Jesus; the only one who could take away the sins of the world and empower us to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.
Jesus is the answer to Paul’s question in Romans 7: 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Hallelujah!
I cannot simply choose righteousness and walk in it. Nor can you. In response to our fallen human state the Father sent his unique Son Jesus to fulfill what Paul recorded in 2 Corinthians 5:21
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and because of him and his perfect sacrifice, you and I, and humanity can be called the righteousness of God.
This Easter may we all be reminded that because of righteous Jesus that we too are vicariously made to be the righteousness of God. And because Jesus is alive and dwelling in us, we are empowered to do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly with our triune God.
Sometime during this Easter season look at yourself in the mirror and say out loud “You are the righteousness of God” and then be sure to add “Because of Jesus.”
Let’s pray:
Father God, thank you for giving us your one and only Son.
Jesus, thank you for including us in your perfect love and making us righteous!
We praise you for your mercy, and may we extend it to others.
Thank you for walking with us, and especially as we walk through the remembering of passion week and that glorious Easter morning when you arose in glory and victory.
In the name of our righteous, merciful Savior Jesus, amen.
From Susan and me, we wish you a meaningful and life-giving Easter.
