8 years prior he had been the least self-controlled person she had ever encountered. However, now he was renown for being reasonable. Where was this reasonableness coming from? Like most root systems, the one giving rise to his composure was not visible, and thus she was mired (at least for the moment) in a mystery. How on earth did a man like that – so rampantly insecure – go from avid anxiety to quiet confidence? Unbeknownst to her, he was secretly receiving his reasonableness from another country. Little did she know, he had actually transferred his citizenship to this other country, and was thus entitled to an endless amount of peace import. The primary resource of that country was actually something called Righteousness. And as it turned out, the King of that country had an unlimited amount of it and He was unbelievably liberal with it, insofar as He condescended to supply it in abundance for pathetic and pitiable people such as this fellow whom she was now finding to be quite the anomaly. The reason this King’s righteousness had such a restful and poise-inducing effect on the man is twofold: (1) whereas everyone else carried the burden of producing their own perfection, and lived under the tyrannizing pressure of finishing the work of their own redemption; this man – who had been subdued by The True King, and subsequently had been granted full citizenship within The True Kingdom – rested not in his own efforts and futile attempts to manufacture a righteousness of his own, but rather upon a life he did not live and upon a death he did not die – he staked his entire eternity; (2) whereas everyone else harbored massive amounts of insecurity due to their lack of perfection; this fellow had the assurance of imputed perfection …the righteousness of this King was bonafide and robust; it was in fact an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable kind of perfection. Thus, both pressures of continuous performance and guaranteed perfection were dealt with on the most fundamental and foundational levels in this man’s life. In short, the explanation for this man’s renown reasonableness was the result of his resting in a righteousness wrought and won on his behalf by none other than God Himself. Nowadays, whenever the man felt himself in the gravitational pull of anxiety, he simply – like a child asking for a cup of water, or applying for the arms of their parents – requested peace (preemptively giving thanks as he made the supplication) from The King whose Kingdom is immovable and infinite …and peace was given to him. And it should also be noted that this was no “ordinary peace” …rather, this was the Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. Of course the woman was befuddled! …she didn’t know what to make of it, clearly she could tell that the man was marveling amidst the climate of peace being provided for him, but at that moment she didn’t have eyes to see what he was seeing. What she would later discover, is that the man was starring – entranced, addicted to, and fixated upon – a Crucified King! A magnificent and radically royal stone which had been rejected by the builders …and though rejected, it had nonetheless – unavoidably and irreversibly – become the cornerstone! The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, the Conquering King accomplished and carried-out his Conquest by – against all odds – becoming The Lamb who was slain! And as they beheld the glory of the Lord, they discovered themselves being transformed into the same image – from one degree of glory to another – bearing and embodying love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
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