Rest

Always rest in who you are in Jesus Christ. And if you are not (yet) a Christian, continue reading!

When you believe in Him, God sees Jesus’ perfect life when He looks at you. Jesus took upon Himself on the cross your imperfect life and the condemnation and judgment that you deserve. And He gave you His righteousness and a life free of condemnation and judgment. When you fail, know that Jesus Christ is your Advocate in Heaven at the Father’s right hand. When you fail, look upon Jesus Christ and thank Him for what He has done for you, that He has already taken the condemnation, judgment and punishment for your failure.

Love is not that you love God. Love is that God first loved you and that He sent His Son to take upon Himself the condemnation and judgment for all your sins, wrongdoings and mistakes. Because He loved you first, you can love Him by receiving His gift of grace and living your life knowing that He has given to you His righteousness. By grace, free of charge for you.

So, always rest in who you are in Jesus Christ. Because among people in your daily life, the above fact may be strongly challenged, by your Christian friends…! Christians who have not done exactly the same sin, wrongdoing and mistake as you have, and therefore might be fooled to believe that they are better than you. They may have excluded you from their group of friends, and you may not even be welcome in church.

Let me tell you shortly about three well known men in the Bible. If you are a Christian, you have heard about each of them. If you are not yet a Christian, you may still have heard about them. If not, read and find out.

Abraham

You may have heard about Abraham being called the father of faith. This is the man who lied about his own wife in order to protect his life. In fear of being killed, he lied and said that his wife was his sister. Twice he did so. Once, while his name was still Abram, and once after God had changed his name to Abraham. When God was changing his name from Abram to Abraham, God was actually adding to his name one of the letters in God’s own name Yahweh. The letter “h” represents grace in the Hebrew alphabet. God also told Abraham that he would become father of many.

It was not exactly a respectful thing to tell others that his wife was just his sister. He risked his wife twice to protect his own life. Even after God had told him that he would become father of many, Abraham in his behavior did not trust God’s promise and was afraid that he would be killed. How could he be afraid of being killed at that time before he had become father to even one child?

Later, still in practical terms doubting God’s promise, he went to sleep with the slave woman because he thought that would be the only way to see God’s promise fulfilled.

But God’s grace is greater than Abraham’s wrongdoings. Still, grace based Christians exclude you, as if God’s grace should not be greater than your wrongdoings….

David

As a boy, David stood up to conquer the giant Goliath, while King Saul was hiding because of fear. As an adult, David committed adultery when sleeping with another man’s wife. And he even killed this other man. But God’s grace is greater than David’s wrongdoings. In Luke 2:4, it says that Joseph went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David.

God’s grace is greater than David’s wrongdoings! Still, grace based Christians exclude you, as if God’s grace should not be greater than your wrongdoings….

Peter

Peter walked on the water. But Peter also denied Jesus three times just a few hours after having promised to Jesus Himself that he would rather die than denying Him. The facts were not to be misunderstood. People could witness that Peter had denied Jesus. People could witness that Peter had said that he did not know Jesus. He even swore that he did not know Jesus. His words are even printed in the world’s bestselling book ever! Peter’s words could not be misunderstood. Just as your words could not be misunderstood when you said or wrote something wrong.

But God’s grace is greater than Peter’s wrongdoings. People around Peter must have been very much aware of that because he was not excluded by his friends, the disciples. On the day of Pentecost a few weeks later, it was Peter representing the disciples talking to the multitudes of 3,000 people after having received The Holy Spirit.

God’s grace is greater than Peter’s wrongdoings and God’s grace is greater than your wrongdoings. Still, your grace based friends exclude you even if Peter’s friends did not exclude him….

In the Bible, we learn how God’s grace has a practical impact on individual persons both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. We learn that our wrongdoings deserve condemnation and judgment, we learn that God out of love for us put all the condemnation, judgment and punishment on Jesus Christ, we learn that when we believe in Jesus Christ we get His righteousness, and we learn that God through His Son Jesus Christ has given us the ministry of reconciliation  -  not the ministry of condemnation.

This should be a clear fact for your Christian friends. If they despite this fact exclude you from communication and friendship and from their church, do not allow yourself to be put down. Include them and their church in your past and move on!

Let your focus be on Jesus Christ and what He has done for you. That way you can rest in who you are in Jesus Christ. Even if you remain sitting alone after your Christian friends have left. But Jesus Christ will never leave you nor forsake you! Maybe He has persons ahead that will become real friends, not just friends for the good days. Maybe He has a church for you that will become a real home, not a home where you are no longer welcome when doing a mistake.