The greatest challenge of the Christian is to overcome self. We have nothing good within us apart from the intervention of God, nothing that God finds appealing, so much that it would move Him to go to work on our behalf. If the answer to God’s abundant grace toward sinners is to be found, it is to be found only in the character of God.  God loves because it is His nature to love and have mercy upon sinners. God loves His people on the basis of His Son, Jesus Christ. As Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 1, we are accepted in the beloved. That is it my friend. We are accepted on the basis of His Son and that is the only basis. God, rich in mercy, moved by His own will to be gracious to sinners. 

            If we would accept this truth and live by it, we would know that there is nothing to prove to God, nothing to do to make Him love and accept us. Christ has done it all, and that is the great resting place of the soul. When you can accept yourself as God sees you—not as other people see you, or worse still, as you see yourself—but as God almighty, the one whose mercy endures forever, sees you, then you will never interpret your relationship with God in the same way again. God sees us through the righteousness of His Son. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. When God sees the person who has faith in His Son, He sees the merits, the righteousness, of Christ. He accepts us in the beloved.

            This is the key to living the Christ-life instead of the self-life. The self-life represents that which is governed by human understanding, by the emotions, by the intellect. It represents seeing things as a fallen human being, as the world sees and assesses things. There is a God in heaven that does not see as man sees (1 Sam. 16:7). He sees all things in relation to His Son. And if that is the case with the world and all things that are in it, then that is certainly the case with those who are in Christ, in union with Him.

            The Christ-life is that which is connected at all times to Him whom God gave to be head over all things to the church. It is the life of absolute perfection and righteousness, made so because of the abiding of Christ within us. If you are in Christ, then whatever is true of Him is true of you, as far as your acceptance with God is concerned. Worried Christians often ask, “Am I truly accepted by God?” And the answer is another question: “Is Christ accepted before the Father?” If so, then you are as accepted as He is, not because you are as good as He is, but because you are in Him and what He did counts for you. You are to reckon yourself dead to sin (Rom. 6:11). You, apart from Christ, are not the important consideration. What Christ has done, and is, is all that counts. So the significant question is not what you have done or have not done, but the matter of whether or not you are in Christ. If you are in Christ then you are through, done, finished. Christ’s work is all that matters. And that work counts for you because you are in Him.

            And what about the matter of attaining this union with Christ, wherein the sinner is able to say that he is “in Christ”? Oh, what a simple matter it is. Every part of the gospel is good news for the sinner. To be in Christ, you must simply believe in the worth of His accomplishments. To “believe into Christ” (Acts 10:43) and “be baptized into Christ” (Rom. 6:3-4) requires a full reliance upon what He did for you. You must believe that what He did was good enough to make you accepted by God. We often hear talk in religious circles about “God’s part” in salvation and “man’s part.” It is likely the flesh, that way of carnal thinking, that causes us to speak in such terms. I am certain that what we normally mean by the idea of “man’s part” is in direct contradiction to the truth of salvation through Christ.

            But does man have a responsibility in his salvation? Certainly he does. But what is it? It is in no way a “transaction” wherein I trade my faith for His salvation. No, my friend, if there is any merit at all in anything that I do, even in my faith, then it is salvation by human merit and I have something to boast about. There is no merit in human faith. The merit is in the object of our faith, which is the saving and sanctifying work of Christ through His substitutionary death on our behalf and His triumphant resurrection from the grave. When I believe in that, rely on it with my whole heart, so that when I think of my acceptance with God, my hope of living forever in heaven with Him, I think only of what Christ has done, it is then I realize what it means that Jesus did it all. Salvation is His work from beginning to end.

             “Man’s part”, if we must call it that, is to acknowledge and rely on God’s part. That is called “faith” in the Bible, and it is expressed by repentance, water baptism and a life lived under the direction of Christ. When we respond to “God’s part,” when our hearts and actions proclaim, Yes, God, I believe that what Christ did counts for me and is totally sufficient to make me right with you and accepted by you, then God counts that faith as righteousness, which is another way of saying that what Christ did counts for us. And if what Christ did counts for us, if we get credit for what He did so that what is true of Him is true of us, then we have absolutely nothing to worry about as far as our relationship with God is concerned. We are as safe and secure as Jesus is. We have as much chance of being separated from God as Jesus does. We are united with Him, and we are accepted by God because He is accepted by God. 

            That is the good news of Jesus Christ. Put your faith in Christ; trust in Him and what He has done. If you will turn from your sins and put your faith in Christ, you may be baptized in His name and know that your sins are forgiven and you are accepted by God.

Bryan Dunaway

Grace and Peace Ministries

www.gandpministries.org