Counted Sinless In Christ

Apr 23, 2016 1511

There is a remarkable statement by God in 1 Kings 14:8,

My servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes.

How could God say that when David had broken the sixth and seventh commandments?

David repented. And when we repent, God casts our sins into the depths of the seas; as far away as the east is from the west, God removes our transgressions from us. The God who could say of sinful David, ‘my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes’ – that God counts us as sinless for Christ’s sake, when we trust in the Saviour.

Jesus told his disciples, ‘You are already clean’ (Jn 15:3). Two chapters earlier we find them far from clean: they are wrangling as to who would be greatest, and refusing to wash one another’s feet. Jesus washed their feet, and pronounced, ‘You are clean’ (Jn 13:10). Later, in prayer, he tells the Father, ‘They have obeyed your word’ (Jn 17:6).

God looks at us through the cross. God looks at the broken law through the bloodstained mercy seat.

We are ‘accepted in the Beloved’ (Eph 1:6 KJV). We are ‘complete in him’ (Col 2:10 KJV). That is the gospel.

Christ’s perfection, not ours, is the basis of our acceptance. We are saved by works, by perfect works – but they are not our own. They are the perfect works of Christ.

– Des Ford. Rom 8:27-32. Adapted from “How Perfect is Perfect?”

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