In our ministry we have asked many Christians through the years if they grew up feeling loved. The majority have answered in the affirmative. The next question though is often answered differently. Let me ask you that question. "Did you feel accepted growing up?" Think about that for a minute. I am not asking if people said they accepted you. The question is "Did you 'feel' accepted?"
One of the deep God-given needs of the human heart is to feel accepted. Acceptance is the unconditional part of love. It means that when someone accepts us, there are no conditions upon that acceptance. We can't mess it up by making a mistake, committing a sin or failing. There is no human being in our lives who can meet this need for us completely.
However, God is able to accept all those who are in Christ through faith. The question is "why does He accept us?" Is it simply because He is kind, merciful and full of grace so that He overlooks our faults and sins? While He is all of these and more, there is another very important reason He accepts who we are in Christ. It is because through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, He has made all of us who have faith in His son 100% righteous!
What is righteousness? It means to be right, to be perfect, to be perfect in character. God's righteousness is the perfection of all of His character. Amazingly, through our faith in His Son, God removes the unrighteousness of our past, present and future sins. He also, replaces our sinner identity with a righteous identity.
2nd Corinthians 5:21 says it this way. "God made Him who knew no sin to become sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Wow! Do you see the divine exchange which occurred? Jesus Christ became our sin on the cross and we became as righteous as God! That is, God gave us His perfect character in exchange for our sin. This does not mean He gave us His deity though. We are and will always be humans.
God's gift of righteousness is the reason He can accept you. This has made you 100% acceptable to Him! You can't diminish that righteousness by sinning nor increase it through obedience. I urge you to believe it, because you will be in agreement with God's Word.
Be Free In Christ, Mark Maulding, President Founder
Grace Life International www.GraceLifeInternational.com
