It’s not that that’s not true, we don't deserve those gifts, but it’s not the whole truth. Focusing on our sin or the sin nature of man is damaging and what we need is encouragement to believe and walk in the truth that we are "the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus". We need to encourage each other to find strength in the joy of our salvation and to approach God with boldness! When you feel guilty and condemned of something it’s very hard to be bold and confident.
“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he commanded us.” -1 John 3:21-23
See that? If "our heart", not "if God does not condemn us." I heard a great sermon recently and the pastor said, “If you get a revelation of righteousness it’ll do amazing things for your faith.” See, God does not condemn us. Period. Condemnation comes from Satan, other people and ourselves. And it’s when our hearts do not condemn us that our faith is made strong, that "we have confidence before God”, it says there in verse 21.
It is impossible to please him without faith and it’s nearly impossible to live and walk in faith and speak in faith when what we believe and what we’re being reminded of over and over again is that we’re messed up, unworthy, sorry excuses for Christ followers. Jesus redeemed us! Right?! What does that mean to you? We’ve been saved by his sacrifice and in exchange for our sin and shame he made us righteous! We now have the same claim to the kingdom as Jesus does. We're joint heirs with him.
During my visit to another church a while back the pastor went so far as to say that because we're given that love and grace and mercy undeservedly, "we need to make ourselves acceptable to God. We need to make ourselves vessels of honor." No. What we need is that revelation of our redeemed life! And in that we'll be standing on His truth and His promise to us rather than trying to make our own.
We should desire to be worthy vessels, for sure. Receiving love is meant to make us want to be better, to be worthy, and is meant to motivate in us right and noble actions. But to take it upon ourselves to make ourselves worthy of the love is to discount it. It's not even about the love anymore, it's about us.
When Jesus stumped all the would-be stoners (hehe, stoners =P) in John 8 who brought him the woman who'd been caught in adultery, what did he say to her after everyone else had dropped their rocks and gone home? He asked her who had condemned her. Her accusers had all left. "No one." And then Jesus shows us the Father's heart toward us. "Neither do I condemn you."
Wow.
If anyone has a right to condemn us (to condemn this woman who was, in fact, guilty), it's Jesus. He took every sin and every ounce of evil we can come up with on himself and still he does not condemn us. Because that's why he took it on himself. To bring us freedom from condemnation! To make us righteous and give us his authority and spirit! Abundant life.
Now he did say to her, "go and sin no more." And he says that to us now. And we should let the gratitude and love we have for him motivate that desire and resolve in us to choose rightly. But notice what he didn't say. =) What he's not saying.
He didn't say, "I forgive you... because I'm amazing and you're ridiculous." He didn't say, "I just wanna make sure you really understand how bad you were back there." He. Does. Not. Condemn. =) He doesn't try to make her or us feel bad.
When you feel condemnation, recognize it's source, whether from a friend or family member or your own heart. Take a look and honestly repent if there's something there that shouldn't be, but let it go. Certainly don't condemn others. God does not condemn us in order to get us on the right track. He doesn't do it to refine us or build our character. He doesn't. Do it. The enemy does it to steal our faith. It's sneaky cuz we buy into it sooo easily, thinking it's God's disappointment in us, like he's guilt-tripping us (deservedly). Haha. Ahhh.
God, I ask that you give us a revelation of our righteousness in you, in Jesus. Help us to live and move and speak in the freedom you've given us so that our faith may grow and please you more and more. We accept your gift of righteousness and thank you for it! We are your sons and daughters! Heirs to your kingdom! And we are NOT condemned.
