"Thy righteousness is like the great mountains..." [Psalms 36:6a]
Imagine a single mountain towering past the international space station, a mountain whose peak extends over two million feet, over 900,000 meters into the sky into the exosphere of the earth. It would be quite a sight to see, an absolutely massive and powerful presence no doubt. Even some of the smaller mountains on earth are impressive to view or to stand by. There is something about a mountain which speaks of power and of majesty, of stability and strength, and if such a mountain were to exist, it would be almost unfathomable. If we combined the top 120 mountains together into one, giant, towering behemoth, it would be just what is described here. This fictional mountain would extend 564 miles into the sky, or 909,000 meters.
Now compare this thought to our verse in Psalms, which states that God’s righteousness “is like the great mountains.” First, we must remember that in Corinthians Paul says we are in “Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us…righteousness…” [1 Cor 1:30] and also that in Jeremiah, we are told the “Righteous Branch” who is Christ, shall be called, “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” [Jer 23:5-6] We see, then, from these passages that Jesus is our righteousness and He in fact is the righteousness of God; for it is written that we are “made the righteousness of God in Him.” [2 Cor 5:21] So then, we see that the righteousness of Jesus, who is “the radiance of [The Father’s] glory, and the express image of His person,” [Heb 1:3] is indeed “like the great mountains.” And now let us consider the righteousness of Christ, which is displayed to us in His life on earth.
With this verse in mind, consider the righteousness of Jesus, who while on earth, fulfilled every part of the law without flaw, who unlike us, did not fall short of God’s glory, but through His life perfectly displayed it, being perfectly obedient to every statute of God and every form of His character. This is to us a great mountain of righteousness. It towers so incredibly past any known object on earth, past any man ever to live, that even the height of the furthest star in the deep expanse of space falls short in comparison.
Jesus, in every millisecond of His life on earth, perfectly loved. He in fact was love; for it is written, “God is love.” [1 Jn 4:8] Yes, for every living and breathing second of Jesus’ existence, He perfectly represented The Father’s love in every imaginable aspect: in thought, word, emotion, and deed. But to truly see the height of this majesty, we must look at 1 Corinthians 13.
In this passage, we are given a description of love. But we would be careful to notice that all the descriptive words of love in verses four through eight are present verbs. They are not adjectives, as it sometimes seems, but verbs; and present verbs at that. In Greek, the present verb represents a continuous action, an action which is not just once, neither is it past, but it is present and ongoing: that is, continuous. And notice another thing: not only is love all these verbs, but love is all these verbs at the same moment. Meaning, love is not in one instance longsuffering (but not hopeful); neither is love kind (albeit thinking evil); no, in no case! Love at every moment is continually doing all these things at once. We therefore read that love,
“…is suffering long, and is being usefully kind; love is not envying; love is not boasting of itself, is not being puffed up, not behaving improperly/indecently, is not seeking itself, is not being easily provoked, is not keeping account of wrongdoing; is not rejoicing in iniquity, but is rejoicing in the truth; is bearing up [with] all things, is believing all things, is hoping [through] all things, is enduring all things. Love is never failing…” [1 Cor 13:4-8a]
Most of us, if we are honest, see that we fall short of even one descriptor of love. But Jesus, who lived over thirty years upon earth, for not one second ever failed at any moment to display each and every aspect of love in perfect union and execution. This is a massive and glorious mountain of righteousness. Truly, as it says, His “righteousness is like the great mountains.”
For us, this is a most rewarding thought. For it is Jesus’ righteousness that is accredited to us. It is through faith that we are gifted this righteousness. Praise God for His beautiful Son, Jesus; for He climbed a mountain none of us could ever have climbed. And praise God again, for because of all Jesus’ stunning righteousness, He was condemned as though He never did a righteous act in His life, and He did this all for us who believe on Him, for those whom He loved, for it is on the cross, that though Jesus was righteous and “knew no sin,” yet Paul tells us that He was “made…sin for us” and was condemned for us “that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” [2 Cor 5:21]
Click here to see other posts in Daily Meditations on The Glory of Jesus, Vol I