“Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.” Job 40:4. The hymn writer John Newton once wrote, “I have lived hitherto a poor sinner, and I believe I shall die one.” As we sink lower instead of rising higher, we may imagine God sees us as we see ourselves, failing, declining, unworthy. Especially when our gaze lingers on our own sinfulness, and we start to think that God looks at us with the same disappointment we feel toward ourselves, forgetting that He only sees us in His Son. Colossians 3:3.
We can become so aware of our remaining sin that we ask, almost in despair, “LORD, why do You still allow me to be so frail?” Such thoughts can lead to darkness of mind and bondage of spirit, drawing our eyes away from the unshakable truth that the Father never accepted us for what we are in ourselves, but for what Christ is on our behalf. In those moments, we forget that His mercy toward us is not measured by our strength, II Corinthians 12:9, and that His patience and purpose remain perfect and unchanging. Psalm 33:11. “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” Psalm 103:13-14.
We are “accepted in the BELOVED,” Ephesians 1:6, not in the ebb and flow of our condition; on our worst day as on our best, our righteousness is Christ alone, unchanging, perfect, forever enough. Philippians 3:9. “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Malachi 3:6. MPJ