Blameless Before Him

Truth isn’t based on feelings. It’s not based on conjecture. Whether I’m happy or sad, confused or enlightened, the fact remains that God is everlasting Truth. I can be wallowing in self-pity or soaring on high, but He doesn’t change.

One of the struggles of the Christian life is the issue of trust. We are called to trust in the Lord our God, put our faith on Him, and let Him bear the burdens we endure. Yet, in our egoistic and sinful nature, we don’t often do this with full vigor. There’s always that part of us that thinks we can do something on our own, always that little voice that says we don’t have enough trust or we’re not good enough to bother Him with our problems.

It’s simply not true, but our flesh is in a constant state of warfare with the Holy Spirit. We kick and scream and want our own way. In a way, all our sin can be traced to pride. We’re too proud to admit we’re wrong. We’re too proud to let our Creator take over. We delude ourselves into thinking we’re better than we are. Or, perhaps just as frightening, we delude ourselves into thinking that until we can become better, He won’t listen.

This is a folly I know all too well. It’s so easy, so subtle, to dupe oneself into thinking Christianity is about good deeds. There’s this tendril of darkness luring us away from His truth and into the devil’s lies which says that because we don’t deserve His grace we don’t have it. One lapses into a good works theology, thinking that God hates a person when they’re not doing something explicitly for Him every second of every day.

But we cannot let this lie consume us. We cannot let the tides of scrupulosity, the need to micromanage our own morality, override our devotion to Him and our obligation to Him. Scripture says:

“‘I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” (John 3:3)

“This Jesus is the stone rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people, and we must be saved by it.” (Acts 4:11-12)

So we can do nothing on our own. No amount of good deeds, no amount of aiming to please God of our own will can save us. There is only one hope for eternal life, and that is in our Savior Jesus Christ. So what happens to those who are born again? Scripture says:

“They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:24-26)

“But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath.” (Romans 5:8-9)

“Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him—if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard.” (Colossians 1:22-23)

The Scripture is clear that the blood of Jesus Christ saves those who believe on Him. Because of His sacrifice, we are no longer unrighteous in the eyes of the Lord. We can and will still sin, but because we put our faith on Him, we are blessed and saved by His grace. Those who are born again remain in this faith and do not fall away (permanently) to the false teachings of the world. We can do nothing on our own and our works are, to paraphrase Scripture, rags in the Lord’s eyes.

But He has prepared for us the greatest work of all: to serve and delight in Him. Our feelings of malcontent do not change this. My urgent need for perfectionism won’t change this. The Lord knows the hearts of His children and the world at large. He knows that we have all fallen short of His grace. How great is our God that He paved the way for us through the blood of Jesus Christ!

Now, don’t mistake me here. If you think that His grace is a license to sin, then you don’t understand the depths of your depravity or your need for the Savior of mankind. Paying lip service to the Lord is not genuine faith. At the same time, a trueborn believer knows that if he sins, there is a Great Advocate for him or her in heaven.

May we all abide in Him. It’s not easy. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring or how long such thoughts of unobtainable perfectionism may plague me. But I should pray in earnest, as should you, that we do not trust in our feelings and emotions over the Truth of the Lord our God. May He reign over us and snatch from us that which is not true. To Him be the glory, not us.

Thanks for reading and God bless.