Forgiveness Makes You Perfect In God's Eyes
This continues my series on God’s forgiveness.God sent Jesus into the world to deal with our failure. The Bible refers to that as “sin”. Dealing with our failure cost Jesus his life.If you gave your life for something you’d hate for your sacrifice to go to waste, right? So, you can imagine how God’s passion is to have everyone receive the forgiveness that Jesus bought for us.
Forgiveness helps you connect with God.
Have you received God’s forgiveness? Maybe you don’t think it’s necessary. I’m not trying to convince you of that here. I’m really speaking to people who feel separated from God and want to make a connection. Forgiveness makes that connection possible. Forgiveness removes every obstacle between you and God. Can you believe that?
Forgiveness makes you perfect.
Maybe that’s sounds too good to be true. I had it explained to me like this. Imagine that you and Jesus are sitting side by side and Jesus says to Father God, Which one of us is more perfect in your sight? What would the Father say? He’d say, You are both perfect in my sight.When I first heard that, it sounded wrong. How could I be equally perfect in God’s sight with Jesus? But that’s what Jesus’ death did for you and me. The Bible tells us,
By one sacrifice God has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Hebrews 10:14
This verse is about you. Jesus’ death made you perfect in God’s eyes. It says Jesus’ death cleaned your slate…forever.When is the last time someone looked at you as completely blameless? Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone look at you without remembering all of your mistakes, all your sin, all your failure, and past history? That’s how God looks at you.I started this series talking about Eliot Spitzer and his public disgrace. Do you think Eliot would like someone to look at him and see nothing but perfection instead of the biggest hypocrite in New York? Do you think that would bring healing to his soul?
Forgiveness makes you a new creation.
Spitzer may never again have anyone on earth look at him this way, but the Bible says God sees him as perfect if he is in Christ.
If anyone is in Christ, – that is, a believer and a follower of Jesus – the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17
That’s a great promise isn’t it? That’s what happens when God has forgiven you. Your old life is buried and you are given a chance to start over. Forgiveness pushes the “restart” button on your life.Would you like to start over? Are you tired of carrying a load of guilt and feeling stuck in your past? How would you like to let go of your past in exchange for a new life? If so, then let me offer this prayer for you;
Father…thank you that you don’t let our past failures define our lives. You define our lives by your Son. You said that if we are in Christ we are new creatures. What a promise. What a hope. Help us to let go of our old lives and embrace our new identities. Help us to receive every bit of forgiveness that Jesus’ death paid for and nothing less. And help us to live out this new life. Amen.
This post is adapted from my ebook, “Forgiven…once and for all”. Subscribe to this blog to receive your free copy.