One of the most challenging aspects of the Gospel is the amazing grace of God that declares Believers as perfect in Christ. It is hard to grasp because we know we’re still sinners. How can we be both sinners and sinless at the same time and, if true, how can we live in that reality?
It is a fact that I have a sin nature that struggles, constantly, to do the right thing. The operative word there is, “do”. The important thing to note, though, is that the Gospel is not about what I do, but what Christ has done. Operative word there, of course, is “done.”
This was what Jesus meant when He declared, “It is finished!” on the cross. The mission had been completed so that the only way to the perfect, sinless Father was established for imperfect, sinful creatures by a perfect, sinless Savior. This is done by the Father’s action of crediting the absolute righteousness of Jesus to the account of those who believe and repent of the sin of rebellion against Him, and then deducting that sin from their account, charging it to Jesus, the very Son of God!
This changes everything! It changes who we are and how we relate to God and others. It affects how we view ourselves which, in turn, affects how we think and what we do. In his exceptional devotional book, New Morning Mercies, Paul David Tripp drives the point home:
It is simply a denial of the amazing grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ to treat yourself as an unworthy, impure, and incapable spiritual worm. You must not meditate on the judgment of God. You must not squirm at the thought of his presence. You must not allow yourself to wonder if he loves you. You must not see yourself as unworthy of his care. You must not work to measure up in his sight. You must not think that he acts more favorably to you when you are obedient than when you sin. You must not beat yourself up when you fail. You must not give yourself to acts of payment and penance after you have messed up in God’s eyes. You must not envy the worthiness of the person next to you, as if he or she is more accepted by God because he or she is more spiritually mature than you. You must never run from God in fear as you think of the empirical evidence of remaining sin that you give every day. What you and I must meditate on every day is the absolute perfection and completeness of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the good news…the great news of the Gospel that is so easily twisted into something God never intended. So, let me say it one more time to those who have trusted in Jesus: Because of the work of Christ on the cross, God cannot love you any more or any less than He does right now, regardless of what you do or have done! God’s love cannot be bought or sold by our weak efforts, either good or bad. It is, say it with me, grace alone.
