I have been thinking lately about a profound, powerful, and possibly freeing concept. And yet it seems to be a very difficult concept to consistently grasp and practice in our imperfect human condition. The concept I have in mind is that of our position before God in Christ as saved believers.
The Bible has many things to say about who we are in Christ. It says we are chosen before the foundation of the world; it says we are complete in Him; it says that Christ’s blood has made us holy and acceptable in God’s sight, giving us free access to His throne; it says that God has given us all we need for life and godliness. It also says that our sins have been entirely erased from our record. Jesus says that He has given eternal life to all who believe in Him, and there is no way His children can ever be taken out of His hand. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us for the rest of our lives, guiding and protecting us until the day we stand in God’s presence.
The spiritual blessings we possess now and will possess in the future are many and unchangeable. They were bought at the price of God’s only Son, and God, who cannot lie, has promised that they are ours. We do and ought to rejoice in this reality as we ponder it gratefully. But there is sometimes a certain discrepancy in our view of our spiritual position.
Anyone who has invited Christ into their life as their Lord and Savior understands the great truth that there is nothing they can ever do to earn their salvation. Good works won’t do it. Church membership can’t get you into heaven. No effort on our part, however well-intentioned or diligently pursued, will gain God’s favor. Our sin has irreparably separated us from God, and we can only be saved by the substitution of Jesus in our place – the transfer of our sin to Him and His righteousness to us. And we rejoice in this principle of “not I, but Christ”!
If such is certainly the case, then why is it so easy for us as believers to lose sight of the principle after we are saved? After knowing we are saved only by grace through faith, we continue in the Christian life, many times, relying on our own effort. It’s as if we believe that the Christian life is some sort of performance. I’ve seen it too many times to recount in my own life and in the life of the church. We make up lists of things to do and things not to do, believing that by following those lists we make ourselves more acceptable to God; and we fear that by not adhering to those lists, we run the risk of losing God’s favor, after which He is waiting and watching to “get” us. It hardly matters what’s on these “lists”. Sometimes it’s actual commands from God’s Word. Other times it’s rules made up by some Christian leader. Sometimes it’s a combination of the two. This can lead to an incredible amount of guilt and pressure in our own lives when we unavoidably feel that we are not measuring up; and this in turn can lead us to cast a judging and critical eye on our fellow believers who do not meet the standards we think they ought to meet.
The simple fact is that such an approach is far from biblical. Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians to a group of Christians who had this mindset, which in their case came in the form of believing that Christians had to follow some aspects of the Jewish law in order to be truly saved and acceptable in God’s sight. In Galatians 3:3, the apostle asks his readers, “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you seeking to be made perfect by the flesh?” Paul simply means that the Galatians foolishly thought that the work of salvation that God graciously began in them by His Spirit had to be continued and maintained by their own effort.
Just as there was nothing we could do to earn our salvation, there is nothing we can do now to win God’s acceptance by our effort – and what’s more, there’s nothing we need to do to win it! There is no possibility that anything we do – good or bad – can change the level at which we’re currently accepted by God, which happens to be total and complete acceptance. The fact is that Jesus died for us before we were even born. He knew all the bad things we would do, and still He loved us. God’s love for us is completely unconditional – that is, unconnected to anything we do or don’t do.
God does not operate His kingdom with different “class” levels. The Kingdom is made up entirely of humans who did not and do not measure up to God’s holiness but were made holy anyway because Christ died for them. As Christians, we’re all at different points in the journey. I struggle with sins you don’t struggle with, and your hang-ups are different from mine. Perhaps it seems that one believer has a lot further to go in the journey toward Christlikeness than another. But none of these factors makes you or me more accepted by God at any time than any other believer. Nor is God just itching to “get” us when we mess up. There is no more wrath to be poured out, because God poured it all out onto His own Son!
All of this is not to say that God has no expectations at all of His children. He wants us to do good works and be like Jesus. However, the good news is that He gave us His Word and His Spirit to help us do that – we’re not alone! He is with us all along the way, ready to help us in the right direction when we fall or stumble or mess up. And as His children, it is part of our redeemed nature to want to please our Lord, who bought us with a price so that we are no longer our own. We do it out of love and gratitude – not out of obligation or a need to measure up.
Whenever we get in the trap of thinking that the Christian life is a performance, we need to sit back and relax. This can be hard to do, because our own flesh and the opinions of those around us may put confusing pressure on us to think otherwise. Our acceptance by God was purchased by another, not by us, and it cannot at any time fluctuate or change. We’re completely safe in Jesus!
Earlier I said this concept was possibly freeing. I think it is, because if we ever become sure and secure in our knowledge of who we are in Christ, it will bring a peace to our lives that we can never know if we still labor under the delusion that we are always trying to gain and maintain God’s favor. This realization will help us to accept ourselves in ways we never can otherwise. And if we can accept ourselves, warts and all, it will help us to accept all of the people around us just as God has unconditionally accepted them and us. And what an amazing impact we can have on our world if we think and live in this way! Just remember – Jesus did it all for us, both before and after we came to Him for salvation. As Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
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