Christianity isn’t a religion for the few who have their acts together. Our great temptation is always to think that merit is our path to God. The gospel’s good news is that despite being at our worst, Christ’s perfection is our own by faith. We have faulty assumptions and protest the notion that our standing with God would come from outside ourselves.
Faulty Assumptions
We think God might accept us when we string together a few weeks of decent Christian living. We fail to realize that the cross settled our acceptance before God. Our striving to bring our accomplishments, hard-won victories, and good deeds as the basis of our forgiveness is a slap in the face of the Savior who alone lived perfectly, died redemptively, and rose again triumphantly.
On the day that we live our most God-pleasing life and on the day that we find ourselves in the dumpster heap of sinful failure, God is equally for us in Christ. We find that mind-boggling, and it leads to spiritual hand-wringing. What is the alternative except works righteousness, which God describes as the filthy rags of human merit?
We Doth Protest
At this point, you might be protesting. Such a radical view of God’s grace, mercy, and love will undoubtedly lead to reckless Christian living. Paul anticipated such an objection and raised it himself. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! Getting it right requires a shock to our meritorious mindset, followed by the exclamation that we must not tolerate sin. One does not negate the other.
Where do you find yourself? Have you had a good month? Or have you made such a mess of things you can scarcely lift your head to utter a prayer? Remember, Christ came for sinners. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Go and sin no more. Think about what is honorable, just, pure, commendable, and lovely.
Do your iniquities burden you? Lift your head. You’re worse off than you think. Yet God in the great gospel reversal is for you in Christ. Your biggest problem is more profound than your actions of failure. You are a sinner who inherited a fallen nature from our first father. But thanks be to God that Jesus Christ has lived a perfect life, gone to the cross on our behalf, and risen from the dead.
Lift your head, but only to look to Jesus. Swim in the depths of His mercy and grace. Seek His face, deny yourself, and repent daily. When you’re at your best and when you’re at your worst, look to Christ, and you will find your judge and Savior.