You Are Righteous In God’s Eyes

A former pastor of mine said, “God has many dysfunctional children.” I include myself in that category. I have struggles, hurts, and a tendency to say and do wrong things, that the Bible calls a sin nature. At times I am sure I really try God’s patience. Often I have been like the prodigal son in an emotional or intellectual sense. I have wandered away from God with my feelings and thoughts. I get angry, get impatient, am unloving at times, and on and on. My life has not always functioned the way God intended it to, and I am sure there have been moments when I have grieved the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).

Above all of this, however, God sees me as clothed in righteousness. Isaiah 61:10 says, “I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exalt in my God; For he has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness.” It is all about God’s amazing grace. God does not see me as dysfunctional as one who, by definition according to dictionary.com, does “not perform normally as…a structure of the body”(in this case the body of Christ).

In my times of wandering, I am reminded that, by God’s grace, I am spending eternity in heaven, not because of me, but in spite of me! There is nothing I can do to inherit eternal life. Romans 5:8 gets right to the point:”But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

How about you? Is your life full of dysfunction? Do you sometimes wonder how God could even love you, let alone permit you to enter heaven? We are told in Titus 3:5-7 that “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy…that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Think about what the above verse is saying. Even the righteous deeds you have done won’t get you to heaven. You are “justified by His grace.” Justification has been defined to mean “just as if you have never sinned.” In addition, you have been made an heir “according to the hope of eternal life.” Amazing grace, how sweet the sound…

If you have called upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation, you are an heir to God’s eternal family. It is called “positional sanctification.” You are part of God’s family, and nothing you have done, or ever will do, can change that. You are clothed in righteousness. Rejoice in that today!