“And the leaders of the church had nothing to add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their reputation as great leaders made no difference to me, for God has no favorites.)” (Galatians 2:6 NLT)
We sometimes wonder why God allows all that goes on in our world, much behind closed doors or in hidden chambers. Why doesn’t He call a halt to sin and the degradation that seems to run so rampant in our world today? Perhaps the better question would be, why does He allow the sin and shame that is so often rampant in the lives of those who DO profess His holy name, yet continue to live as though sin doesn’t matter, and His Word isn’t true?
We’re concerned about the seeming blind acceptance of the sin of the world, while we continue to be blind to the sin that is rampant in our own lives. It’s almost like we wished the Lord would put more focus on all of those evil people out there and stop focusing on the evil I harbor in my own heart and life.
It seems we want acceptance with God on our terms, but that will never happen. It doesn’t matter how good we may believe we are in our own eyes, if it doesn’t measure up to the goodness of Jesus, it’s worthless. Paul says in Philippians 3:7-9: “I once thought these things (his human credentials) were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with Him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith.”
What becomes very scary to me at times is when I focus on how unworthy I am. I look at my life of sin and shame and ponder why an infinitely perfect God would even notice me, but the truth is, I’m exactly the kind of person Jesus died for. If we think we’re ever good enough on our own, we’re more lost than when we lived in sin. David Powlison was right when he said: “God doesn’t accept me just as I am, He loves me despite how I am, he loves me just as Jesus is.”
Ponder that for a moment! “He loves me just as Jesus is.” When we’re washed by the blood of our Savior, when Jesus becomes Lord of our life, owner of our future, the best of everything we think, do, or say, it can be pretty easy for us to believe God loves us like He loves Jesus. But think about when we started this journey, how far we’d strayed, how wrong we were, how broken, and messed up we were, yet God loved us THEN like He loves Jesus.
How can that be? God is love! He doesn’t have the capacity to NOT love us, and His love isn’t like our fickle, temperamental, emotional feelings that rise and fall, come and go. His love is constant, that’s why Jesus promised He would NEVER leave us or forsake us. God’s love doesn’t tuck tail and run when things get hard, that’s when He steps up, holds us tightly, and refuses to let us go.
Maybe you feel like you’ve strayed too far, out sinned your “sin” quota with God. May I remind you the only sin that God won’t forgive is the one for which no forgiveness has been asked. “Yeh, but what about the unpardonable sin? The sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?” The most blasphemous allegation we can ever make against the Holy Spirit is believing there’s a sin which we’re willing to bring to Him that He won’t forgive. If you’ll seek His forgiveness, the Savior’s blood will cover it, and you’ll find forgiveness.
All you have to do is ask, then receive His full acceptance in Jesus alone by faith alone.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 