I need to remind myself of a simple truth everyday – God loves me! Otherwise, I revert to anxious thoughts, feelings, and self-contempt. If I don’t see myself through God’s eyes, I will see myself through the eyes of fear and anxiety.
However, our new identity is not politically correct. It sets us apart from the non-Christian world:
· Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (2 Corinthians 6:14–16)
We do not see these distinctions with our natural eyes. Instead, we must believe these truths according to the testimony of the Scriptures. Why? Because, oftentimes, the children of this world appear to be better than we are, even more righteous and loving. Consequently, if we believe according to what we see, we will despair. We will think that there is something the matter with us or the Bible. However, there are reasons why we fail to look very impressive. For one thing, God chose to save the lowest of people (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).
There is also another reason that we often look messy. We are under construction, and construction sites are messy. This is because God disciplines those He loves (Hebrews 12:5-11; James 4:17). As we undergo trials of our faith, all the impurities that we had hidden, rise to the surface to our shame and disappointment.
We are an eyesore, an unappealing construction site with warning signs – “Enter at Your own Risk,” “Hard Hat Area,” “Only Authorized Personnel.” It is hard to imagine that our Lord could make something beautiful out of our lives, let alone believing that we are the “righteousness of God.” However, our Lord provides us with hidden guideposts for our journey – secret portraits of His radical love.
Even the father of the faith of the Hebrews, Abraham, failed to see it. Instead, his faith often faltered. He lived in fear and pursued his own interests at the expense of his wife. It was his custom to pass his wife Sarah off as his sister so that it would go well for him. When a king would see his beautiful “sister”, he would reward Abraham. This happened when he sojourned in the land of Gerar, even after God had promised him that Sarah would give birth to the child of the promised child, Isaac, the next year. However, once again, Abraham lied and told the king that Sarah was his sister. The king then took her, but before he could consummate, God struck the entire nation down with a life-threatening disease. However, God warned the king in a dream to return Sarah to her husband lest He kill the entire nation.
The king did so and asked Abraham how he could so such a thing to his nation:
· Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.’” (Genesis 20:11–13)
By all appearances, Abraham had proved himself less righteous than the king. However, in the dream, God had revealed a more important perspective to the king:
· Then God said to [the king] in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” (Genesis 20:6–7)
Despite his unfaithfulness, Abraham remained God’s prophet and the king would have to appeal to Abraham to pray for his healing! This is an incredible revelation of how God favors His own children, even those who we might judge in a negative way. While we should confess and grieve over our sins, there is greater truth that we can perceive in the life of Abraham. He was beloved despite his failures. He remained God’s prophet, and his Savior would not let him go or demote him.
God had promised Abraham that he would be a blessing to all the
nations of this world (Genesis 12:2), even though, at times, he would be
a curse to them. We too are a blessing to the world, even
though it does not seem this way. Paul counseled that we should stay in a
marriage with an unbeliever, because we will serve as a conduit of His
blessings to our family:
·
For the unbelieving husband is made holy because
of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise
your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. (1
Corinthians 7:14)
We also serve as God’s conduit of His mercies beyond our own families. As a prisoner on his way to stand trial before Caesar during a life-threatening storm, Paul revealed to the crew and the boatload of people:
· Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, “Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.” (Acts 27:22–27)
They would live because of Paul’s presence on the ship. God had
also informed Abraham that, if there were 10 righteous people in Sodom, He
would have spared this city from destruction (Genesis 18-19). It is
likely that our Lord is sparing our nation because of the presence of His
children. This gives us a small glimpse of how much our
Lord loves and honors us. At the end of this age, when He reveals the depths
of His unmerited love for us, He will bless us exceedingly in the presence of
our enemies (Psalm 23).
How freeing to be in Christ! If we understand these things, we no longer must prove ourselves to others or to build our self-esteem; our Savior has already dignified us beyond anything we can imagine. He had promised Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). If we can grasp this truth, we no longer need to magnify our self-esteem or prevail over others. God has already done it for us.
Last month, I was sitting on a neighbor’s porch but feared that I might be told to leave. But then I recalled that I am giving them an opportunity to be blessed simply by their being kind to me.
We find portraits of God’s love for His children in many diverse verses. Hebrews 11, the chapter known as the “Hall of Fame of Faith” shows how God mercifully regards His children:
By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. (Hebrews 11:11)
Really? When God announced that she would give birth, she laughed in unbelief and then denied that she had laughed. (Genesis 18)
By faith he [Moses] left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. (Hebrews 11:27)
However, when Moses realized that Pharaoh had heard that he had killed one of his taskmasters in an attempted coup, he fled in fear. (Exodus 2:11-15). We find that our Lord is glad to credit us with the slightest measure of faith so He could bless us.
By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. (Hebrews 11:29)
However, in the original account (Exodus 14:10-12), we cannot find any faith, but only rebellion. However, the way that our God regards His children is surprisingly gracious. Even the slightest measure of faith is acceptable to our Savior, who seems to be looking for any reason to restore us.
Abraham had also been unfaithful on many occasions, yet God regarded him as a man of great faith:
No unbelief made [Abraham] waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness. (Romans 4:20–22)
Lot, Abraham’s nephew, also had many moral failures. His two daughters, on two successive nights, had gotten their father drunk to bear children by him, fearing that, in view of the the destruction of Sodom, there were no longer any men left (Genesis 19:31-33). Despite these failures, Lot remained a righteous man in the sight of his gracious God:
…He rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. (2 Peter 2:7–9)
How can this be so? By the mercy of God, who cries out to humanity to turn from their lives of sin and come to Him:
· Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity. (Proverbs 28:13–14)
Therefore, we assume that Lot had been hoping in the mercy of God. However, hardening heart and conscience has been the story of human history. In place of seeking His mercy, we have created a vast number of schemes to prove that we are worthy (Proverbs 16:2) and have rejected the mercy of God. (Romans 9:30-31)
How then does He regard the “good deeds” of the
un-converted? The Scriptures warn us that we cannot earn anything from God. Instead,
if God were to give us what we deserve, we would all be destroyed:
· For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23; 3:19-20)
Even the most extreme forms of self-sacrifice will not even merit a smile from God:
· If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:3)
Why not? God is more concerned about the condition of our heart from which comes faith: Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please him.” Faith is a matter of believing what should be obvious and committing ourselves fully to our Savior, turning from the old way of darkness and to His Light and salvation.
What does God think of us? He loved us so much while we were
His enemies, He is sure to keep loving us now that we are His friends:
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8–10)
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