Thought– “Could it possible be that we simply can’t believe that this unconditional kind of love could take a filthy wretch like this and wrap him up in righteousness, but that’s exactly what He did. No matter the bumps, no matter the bruises, no matter the scars still the truth is the Cross has made, the Cross has made you flawless. No matter the hurt or how deep the wound is, no matter the pain still the truth is the Cross has made, the Cross has made you flawless.” – Mercy Me from the song “Flawless.”
Scriptures: “ God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”- Romans 3:25-26
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
Insight: In day 40 of learning to apply biblical principles to our daily life, what we are referring to as Practical Christianity, let’s consider what it means to us that because of Christ’s redemptive work on the Cross, we have been made flawless. Are we flawless in and of ourselves? Heck no! We are sinners and our sins deserve punishment. But praise be to God, Christ has taken our sins and paid our sin tab in full, so we can be found flawless when we stand before God on the day of judgement. This is the miracle of the gospel and it is what should cause us to celebrate the freedom we have been granted for eternity, not because of anything we have done, but because of what Christ has done. That is the greatest reason for gratitude and thankfulness that should permeate every aspect of our life and overflow to others with whomever we come in contact with. The love of Christ as illustrated on the Cross is the only thing in this world that can save, that can heal, than can restore, that can redeem, that can transform and that can equip us to live in this broken, sin-ravaged world.
The lyrics above from the song “Flawless,” by Mercy Me, one of my all-time favorite bands, does a good job of getting to the point of why we struggle so much with the idea that Christ has made us flawless. In essence as the song says, “ We simply can’t believe that this unconditional kind of love could take a filthy wretch like this and wrap him up in righteousness, but that’s exactly what He did.” So why is that so hard to believe for us? Because we still live in these broken, sinful bodies and we know all of our past struggles with sin and failure, guilt and shame, so those memories, with much help from our adversary satan, overwhelm our thoughts and leave us feeling unworthy. We know we are far from flawless! But God says we are made righteous in Christ so we need to keep reading these scriptures like the ones above and listening to the worship songs like “Flawless” until the Holy Spirit changes our hearts and these thoughts begin to play boss in the sound tracks of our mind. We are flawless only because Christ has taken the place of our sin! That is the truth. God will not see our sin in us, He will see His righteous and perfectly flawless Son standing in our place on the white throne judgement. Praise God that Jesus will be our intercessor and we will then be truly flawless in God’s eyes. Let your soul rejoice, for this is the greatest news of all time and it is not fake news at all. It is the unfathomable truth of a God whose love for us is greater than our ability to understand!
Prayer: Father God, what can we say other than wow and thanks that you would love us so much that you would send your only Son to die on a Cross for our sins so that we could be made flawless when we kneel before you on Judgement Day! Jesus, you are so amazing. We can’t say enough so let our lives reflect your glory, because we owe it all to you. Amen!
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