Today’s guest blogger is my husband, Philip Kinney. Enjoy
As I ponder conversations I have had recently with several people -many of them Christians who have been in church a long time – I realise many are trying to be good enough to match the standard of the bible, and feeling they fall short. They are seeking to be good enough for God to move in their life. They realise they are saved, but their thinking demonstrates they still see themselves in the context of their sins, failings and weaknesses.
This is not how grace works. Too often see the Bible as a standard we have to live up to – as something we aspire to be like through “good living”, but this is a wrong view of the Bible and what Jesus has done for us.
The bible is actually a mirror, a mirror showing us who we really are in Christ! It is a revelation of who God made us to be before the fall of man through Adam and Eve; of who God has restored us to be through the death and resurrection of Jesus – it is a revelation of who we are now. Every sin, every failing, every mistake, every regret has been done away through Jesus. All we have to do is receive it by faith!
It is about making a decision to be who Jesus has made us to be by faith and live out who we are in Him. Our old self, our old sin is not us because it has passed away. It has been removed from our life. Therefore we are no longer trying to meet a standard – trying to be good enough. Instead we have already met the standard in Christ through Jesus, and are walking in His salvation, His grace, His righteousness, His healing, His riches, His blessing! It is time to stop trying to be good enough, and live our lives like we are already good enough, because that is who we are!!
“For it is by grace [God’s remarkable compassion and favor drawing you to Christ] that you have been saved [actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life] through faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [not through your own effort], but it is the [undeserved, gracious] gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8 AMP)
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