Natural rights. These rights were defined by men like John Locke and Thomas Hobbes before the founding of the United States but they were cited by Thomas Jefferson in the "Declaration of Independence." These were a logical step to remove the authority of the king who held his authority was "divine right." Divine right had been the custom for centuries, but the thinkers like Hobbes and Locke asserted that people had lived with natural rights which Jefferson, then, took the added step to say these had been "endowed by our creator." As you remember in your civics classes, these "unalienable" rights (cannot be taken from the crown or government) were "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Christ rides into Jerusalem. It was he who had a divine right, assigned by the Father, to be the sacrificial lamb. The crowd thought they saw the next David riding into the city on the back of a donkey. He was certainly there to deliver them from Rome. Christ knew differently. He was a deliverer, but his divine right was to deliver us from ourselves, our sinful nature.
Due to our sinful nature, we have no rights from God our Father. Our guarantees were clearly spelled out at the fall - toil the land and death (Gen 3). Christ comes to earth and suffers on our behalf to make us whole in the sight of God. Our sinful nature is now clothed in righteousness through faith in Christ.
"This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[ through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith." (Romans 3:22-24)
We think about the ultimate sacrifice from God the Father of his Son. We think about the weight of this sacrifice on Christ as he took on the sins of the world. We thank God for our righteousness we gain with faith in Christ and the suffering and resurrection that gave us this righteousness.
Hope Men's Ministry
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