Upright

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

UPRIGHT

Prov 21:8

8 The way of the guilty is devious, but the conduct of the innocent is upright.

NIV

Again we have a comparison of the non-believer and the believer. There is simply no way a believer would do anything devious, plus the fact a believer has been already declared innocent because of the blood of Jesus. However we cannot always say that as a believer our conduct is one hundred percent upright all the time. Yet in fact that is exactly what our conduct is because we are in Christ and his conduct is absolutely upright. It is also true that a non-believer is not always devious one hundred percent of the time. Yet in fact because they are not in Christ, their way is guilty and they are devious because they follow their own heart. God has declared man’s heart is bent toward evil all the time. That is why we need Christ, we need to be in Christ and we need to have Christ in us. One man has put it Christ living as us. We are not sure we grasp that concept completely but the fact remains we are declared righteous and innocent because we are in Christ. We have accepted God’s provision by faith. Therefore our conduct is upright. The one deed we can actually do that is or was upright was to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. In doing that we were declared, by God, innocent of sin.  Perhaps the guilty or the devious conduct of the non-believer might even have to do with their trying other ways to attain heaven, rather than just living according to their own heart that is bent toward evil. Maybe the devious are trying to use religion of one form or another to attain heaven. It is seldom if ever we have heard at a viewing people speak about the dead person going to a worse place. It seems no matter the belief of the deceased they are in a better place. How can the devious conduct of the guilty be in a better place? Being religious does not equate with upright conduct. Being a good person does not equate with being saved and being declared innocent. Doing humanitarian deeds does not equal being innocent and upright. There is but one way to be declared innocent and upright. That way is Jesus. He is the truth, the way and the light. No one gets to go to a better place except through Jesus. So then, even in our failures, our acts of sin, if we are in Christ we are declared by God as innocent. As difficult as that is to comprehend, we will accept it, by faith. Is it possible to never sin, if Christ is living in us, or as us? We would think that would be the case. But how can we never sin just because we allow Jesus to live as us? We are still in the flesh, we still have a mind that thinks about things we should not. We still have weaknesses. But then are we just looking as us rather than Jesus? What a digression from this proverb. The fact remains we are not guilty but innocent because we are in Christ. Therefor God sees us as upright.