I'm So Right With God

…And it’s not my fault.

This morning the Spirit reminded me of what Jesus’ death and resurrection means regarding my condition with God—my constant condition with God. I’m well-off.

There is so much that seeks to identify me as unfit, ill-prepared and deteriorating—I haven’t been exercising, there’s a nasty break-out on my face, my hair is graying and leaving, and much more. It all tempts me to believe my condition is what I see and experience. But none of it has anything to do with what God did for me in Christ. And that’s what actually has meaning and counts. Forever.

Think of it.

Concerning Jesus, Paul writes, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (Romans 4:25) Did it work or didn’t it?! It did! The Father treated Jesus as though He actually committed my sins, making Him to be sin for me (2 Cor 5:21), so that in Him I “might become the righteousness of God.” Whoa. And in Him, I have been made justified with God—as though I had never, ever sinned, and had always done everything exactly right. Jesus has given me His perfect righteousness for my own. What a possession! What a gift!

Because of all He has done, I have peace with God. I don't have peace with God because of what I do—always do I have peace with God because of what He did already. I may not feel that peace, given the ebb and flow of my day, but it has been secured and given to me, nevertheless, forever. That’s the incredible grace in which I now stand (Romans 5:1,2). Okay, in which I now leap! As Paul writes, “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:2b) Because of what He has done through Christ, He gets a lot of glory in me.

And there’s more.

I’ve been entirely reconciled to God. No errors, no mistakes, no faults, no blame—made perfectly right by Him with Him for Him. (I know that’s a messy sentence, but so what.) “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5:11) My condition with God is forever right. That doesn’t say anything about my feelings and thoughts and behavior, which change like the wind, but it says everything about what matters most and what endures—the forever me. A born again, son of God.

Way to go, God! As a friend of mine says to God, “You rock!”

And because He does, so do I. So do you!

Today, I’m living by faith in what He thinks about me. As Wilford Brimley says, “It’s the right thing to do.”