“Mankind, He has informed us of the good, and what the Lord requires. To act justly, to love faithful, and to walk humbly with your God,” Micah 6:8.
The Lord requires you to be just, love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.
One of the most amazing requirements God has placed upon us (His people, the ‘born again’) is that we become the righteousness of God by fully conforming to His ethical and moral standards. Since God is holy, His will is that we become holy. God cannot allow sin in His presence. You and I were born into sin, so we cannot be righteous in our natural state. For our natural sin, there is no law, no government, and no power in the natural state. The natural state of mankind is war and sin seeking to destroy, or seeking to be destroyed.
God is so gracious that He solves this problem by sending His only Son, Jesus Christ the giver of life.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but the world through Him might be saved,” John 3:16-17.
Jesus never sinned, but became sin and the sacrificial Lamb for all mankind. He is the fulfillment of all sacrifices offered to God through faith.
“For He hath made Him to be sin or sin offering for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,” 2 Corinthians 5:2.
When we are saved by faith in Christ, God makes us His righteousness as we become perfected through obedience to His word and the direction of the Holy Spirit. This is why we don’t live based on what is acceptable. We live on what is right because we are the righteousness of God.
In Micah 6:8; the prophet answered the question to the children of Israel: Will God accept our sacrifices and our religious rituals? The Lord is not requiring your burnt offerings (sacrifices); thousands of rams; ten thousands of rivers of oil; your firstborn for your transgression; or the fruit of your body for the sin of my soul. This is not what God is looking for.
God requires changed lives. He wants His people to be fair, just, merciful, and humble. “God wants us to become living sacrifices, Holy and acceptable unto Him which is our reasonable service,” Romans 12:1.
We try many ways to please God, but God has made His will clear. In your efforts to please God, examine yourself. Don’t just do things to try and please Him or to have Him leave you alone and let you live your own life. The Israelites thought that if they offered sacrifices unto God, He would leave them alone. God is not going to abandon His chosen people. We are the ones who have abandoned God.
The prophet reminds them that what God requires is that you be fair, just, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
You will have a great awakening, and a divine encounter with God when you walk in the spirit. God is requiring you to make the right decision and live in Him today.