Unlimited: Perfectly His Child

Aug 15, 2019 1738

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household (Ephesians 2:19, NIV).

The more I behold Christ’s perfect embodiment of infinite love and truth, the more my conscience would be troubled did I not also believe that his personal righteousness is imputed every moment to this foolish, erring, weak, stumbling believer.

Similarly, I would despair if the Scripture did not assure me that all who have surrendered their lives to the Saviour are “accepted in the beloved,” “cleanse[d] . . . from all unrighteousness,” and without “condemnation” or separation.

Despite the fact that we strive to fulfil every known duty, we remain “unprofitable servants,” righteous only by faith in the merits of Christ, for we all make many mistakes and must pray daily “forgive us our debts”.

In other words, the Good News assures me that if I have given myself to Christ, I am perfectly his child, though not a perfect child. While I am a sinner in myself all my days, in Christ I have perfect righteousness, for “this man [Jesus] receives sinners,” and God is the one who justifies the ungodly who believe.

While at every advance step in my Christian experience my penitence will deepen; and while I will make the apostle’s confession my own, “I know that in me there dwells no good thing;” and my prayers will urgently ascend that the Saviour might help the disorders of my sin-sick soul; simultaneously, I will rejoice that Christ is made unto me righteousness, sanctification, wisdom, and redemption and that I can never be lost while I trust in his merits.

– Des Ford (adapted from “A Meditation Upon the Everlasting Gospel”)

Eli’s Reflection: As you walk with Jesus, do you see yourself as righteous, as a saint? Do you also see your sin? Both are true for the Christian. You are forgiven and declared a saint. You are also sinful and in need of Jesus. How do these truths affect how you think of Jesus and of yourself?

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