Do you feel bad about yourself? ∙∙

Do you feel bad about yourself? ∙∙

No one does good, not a single one. – Romans 3:12 

Romans 3:23-25 

 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

 24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark” (Michelangelo).

We often find ourselves wondering what other people think about us. We are naturally afraid that we will not measure up to some real or imagined standards of others.

Do you feel bad about yourself? The Father has a simple solution for this. Instead of comparing ourselves to the standards set by others, or even our own, we should align ourselves with His. When we recognize how far short we fall, we feel far worse with an even more profound sense of inadequacy!

There’s a significant difference between feeling somewhat bad about oneself and feeling absolutely bad about oneself. When you feel relatively bad, there’s room for self-improvement and enhancement of your condition. But when you feel terrible about yourself, then there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. This lays the foundation for a triumphal resolution.

Paul pushes the boundary and logically takes us to a grim conclusion. Paul does not say that we were merely sinful, depraved, or sick before we became children of the King. Instead, he says that we were dead.

Ephesians 2:1 You were dead in your trespasses and sins.

When we evaluate ourselves against the Father’s standards, we fall short. We are inadequate. There’s no ambiguity about where we stand. We see reality for what it is. We accept and confess that we are dismal failures. We stand condemned. There is nothing we can do to improve our condition.

As condemned individuals, we desperately need the Father’s love, mercy, and grace. Paul reminds us we were not on a friendly basis and making vast improvements when the Father intervened. Instead, we were the Father’s enemies and thoroughly alienated from Him. In response to our dismal condition, He sent the Lord Jesus Christ to die for us. He intervened to resolve the worst part of our darkened and human condition. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ brought about reconciliation. He removed the barriers between us and the Father.

Romans 5:10 While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.

The Father provided a significant paradigm shift for all of His children. We stood helpless, completely, and totally in the wrong and condemned. He unilaterally declared us to be righteous. And so we are! We are now enveloped in the righteousness of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:21 for God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Romans 3:24 God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.

REFLECT & PRAY

You don’t drown by falling into water. You only drown if you stay there (Zig Ziglar).

Father thank You for lifting me out of the miry pit and placing me on solid ground.

INSIGHT

Imagine you are walking in rather swampy woods. Suddenly, you find yourself a couple of steps into quicksand and rapidly sink up to your neck. First, you must find a way out of the terrifying and deadly mess you find yourself in. Second, you have to get cleaned up. All the muck and mire covering you from the neck down has to be removed.

That is precisely what the Father has done! He has freed us from the miry pit, the ugly mess we made of our lives. Then He made us thoroughly clean as if it had never happened. We are no longer sullied. All the stains and blemishes have been wiped away.

In a way, we faced trial and were declared guilty. We stood condemned. But the Father did something extraordinary. We have been given a brand-new legal standing. Through faith in Christ, we have been justified and declared righteous by the Father, once and for all. The result is that the children of the King no longer live under the fear of judgment or the wrath of God. Remarkably, we have peace with God. This peace is not merely a subjective feeling but an objective reality (ESV notes).

While the enemy focuses on the old mess we used to be and rubs our noses in it, the Father concentrates on our redemption and cleansed lives. He provides affirmation and encouragement to every child of the King.

This provides us with an unexpected yet delightful opportunity. We can either continue to dwell on and remember the dark failures of our past, or we can focus on the pure, righteous redemption He has wrought.

Darkness or light, death or life, condemnation or acceptance – the choice is ours.

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© Dr. H 2024