Do you remember these words to one of the great hymns of the church?
Jesus, Thy blood and righteous
My beauty are, my glorious dress
With these before my God I'll stand
When I shall reach the heavenly land.
The hymn writer expresses well the great truth - apart from faith in Christ, the righteousness we can offer before God the Father is our own righteousness and goodness. But according to Scripture, "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags," before God. Our good works are not "good enough" to please God.
Where you and I are powerless to save ourselves, God provides the perfect remedy in His Son, our Savior. Jesus died on the cross, paying the wages of sin in our place. In exchange, God has credited the perfect life of Jesus and His death to sin to our account. This is "God's Great Exchange," captured so well in 2 Corinthians 5:21:
God made Him who had no sin
to be sin for us,
So that in Him we might become
the righteousness of God.
God's great exchange - His free, unmerited grace given as a gift. That is what Jesus was willing to do so that dressed in His righteousness we have no fear in coming before the Father. Jesus perfect sacrifice and resurrection from the dead are more than "good enough" for us!
