Feeling “Good Enough” for God
01.05.09
Feeling “Good Enough” for God
(All Bible verses quoted are from the New King James Version)
Have you ever gotten stuck on the endless treadmill of being performance driven, always feeling that you have to do more for God? Or if you could just stop doing that one sin, then you would feel “right” with God? Maybe you feel you haven’t been praying enough or reading your Bible enough, and you feel guilty. Even though you still pray from time to time, you feel that you can’t really ask God for anything, because you have not done enough to earn anything from Him. When you kneel down to pray there is only that overwhelming sense of guilt, and lack of confidence.
Well, it was the same for people in the Old Testament. Priests continually had to offer sacrifices for the sins of the people, they were reminded & lived conscious of their sins & mistakes year after year. The law & 10 commandments demanded a perfect righteousness from God’s people, they had to obey the laws 100% of the time. But people always sin, so these offers had to be made time and time again: Heb 10: 1 For the law (having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things) can never with these same sacrifices (which they offer continually year by year) make those who approach perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
However, the purpose of the law was not to give us a standard of morality to try and measure up to. The law was given to show us how sinful we are. Rom 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law showed us what sin was!!
The purpose of the law was to show us that we needed a saviour. And once we came into Christ, we were freed from the law. Gal 3:19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made;
Thus we can see that when the Seed (Jesus) came, and once we came into Christ, we died to the law.
Gal 4:4-5 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Thus once we became sons (and daughters) of God, we died to the law. Rom 7:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
Because we are now children of God, free from the condemnation of the law, we do not have to live feeling condemned anymore. Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…
God does not want us to live conscious of our sins & mistakes. He wants us to be conscious of our salvation, conscious of the perfect work He did in us! Our spirits now have the same virtue & righteousness as Jesus Christ (1 John 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world). This verse says that just as Jesus is right now, this very moment, so are we right now in this world!! By method of deduction we can clearly see our bodies have not been glorified yet, and our souls (minds) have not been fully renewed yet. Thus this passage is talking about our spirits, having been perfected, made righteous just like Jesus. Read the verse again, especially the last part, it says we are just like Jesus.
We can now come boldly before God, anytime day or night!! We can come boldly before the throne of grace whether we “feel” good enough or not, because we are conscious of what Jesus did on our behalf. Heb 10:19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Whenever you don’t feel good enough to pray, or when the enemy tries to put the law with it’s condemnation on you, remind him that you have died to the law, and that you are now alive to God, alive to a loving Father that has saved you, forgiven you all your sins past present & future, and sees you not only as if you had never sinned, but as if you have obeyed all the laws your entire life, because Jesus did it on our behalf!!!
Yours in Grace
Andre van der Merwe
