THE HOLY TRINITY
Crowned in Glory and Honor
June 7, 2020

The image of God means to possess God’s righteousness. The
“righteousness” of God means everything working together like God intended.
That includes a relationship with Him. Though we lost that righteousness by
our sin, choosing to be alone without God, God still took into Himself our very
human nature in the person of the Son of God, Jesus. By His innocent life and
His substitutionary suffering and death, all who repent and are baptized into
Him are restored in righteousness. With Christ and in Him, we, too, are
crowned in glory and honor. All praise to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
now and forever.

HYMN “How Excellent in All the Earth”
How excellent in all the earth, O Lord God is Your name!
Who has Your glory far advanced Above the starry frame.

From infants’ and from newborn mouths You did Your strength ordain,
Your triumph over all Your foes Your might, Lord, did restrain.

When I look up unto the heav’ns Which Your own fingers framed,
Unto the moon, and to the stars, Which were by You ordained;

I wonder what is man that You Should notice even me?
Or what the Son of Man that You So kind to him should be?

A little lower now is he Than angels You have made;
With glory and with dignity Your crown upon his head.

Of all Your works You made him Lord, Beneath his feet to lay;
All sheep and oxen and all beasts That in the field now stray;

Fowls of the air, fish of the sea, All these show forth Your fame.
How excellent in all the earth, O Lord God is Your name!

Text: The Psalms of David in Meeter, Edinburgh, 1650, alt. Public domain.

Genesis 1:1-2, 26-27, 31; 2:1-3
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was
without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 26 Then God said,
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the
livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on
the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he
created him; male and female he created them. 31 And God saw everything
that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and
there was morning, the sixth day. 2 Thus the heavens and the earth were
finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his
work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that
he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on
it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.


“And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”
(Genesis 15:9)  This particular verse in Genesis is so central in the Scriptures
that it is quoted several times in the new Testament. It is quoted twice in
Romans, and once in Galatians and James.  These verses are important
because they point to the righteousness received through faith in Christ.  This
righteousness can be received through faith because Jesus paid the price for
all sin on the cross.  It is Jesus righteousness that we are receiving that covers
our sin so that the Father accepts us as one of His children. The
righteousness of God was what Adam and Eve had when they were created
before they sinned. They were created in the image of God.  They were
perfect, without sin. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of
God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)  
Some speculate that image and likeness could point to other possibilities but
that cannot be proven.  What can be proven is what Adam and Eve lost when
they sinned, they were no longer perfect. They lost the image of God.  This is
why receiving God’s righteousness is so important.  Without it we cannot
approach God and He will not accept us. As sinners we can only receive God’
s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. “For our sake he(God) made him
(Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) We have received the
righteousness of God by faith and so we can be confident we have been
forgiven.  It is why John 3:16 which seems so simple is so profound, because
what was lost has been regained in Christ. “For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life.”


LORD’S PRAYER Matthew 6:9–13
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread; and
forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

BENEDICTION
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you.
The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.      Numbers 6:24–26
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Devotion 6/7/2020