The Wednesday Word
Gospel Mercies, Part 2
by
D.G. Miles McKee
The
gospel comes to us with many benefits. These are what we call
Gospel Mercies. In the first of this series of messages we
discussed ‘Forgiveness’ as one of the excellent mercies from the
Throne of Grace. Today we will consider ‘Accepted as
Righteous’ and ‘Adoption.’
Accepted
as Righteous.
Because
of the doing, dying and rising again of Christ we are accepted as
being righteous. Think about it. We are not merely
declared innocent; we are beyond innocent. We are declared
righteous and all because of the work of another. We are
accepted, in Heaven, because we are in Christ Jesus (Ephesians
1:6).
Righteousness is a wonderful gospel benefit
whereby God looks at us and says we have done everything right.
We are righteous! We have been acquitted of all charges
and Christ’s actual righteousness has been reckoned to us.
This
is like getting our past expunged and being given a totally new
identity. It’s better than being in a witness protection
program that is 100% secure!
Since all things are
now new, we have no time to run around the place feeling guilty. What
do we have to feel guilty about? We have dealt with all our sin at
the cross. All the rotten wretched things we have ever done are under
the blood: They are forgiven, forgotten, buried and done away
with in Christ! We believers, as lawbreakers, used to be under a
curse (Galatians 3:10), but now Christ has redeemed us from the curse
of the law having been made a curse for us at the cross (Galatians
3:13). God now reckons us as being righteous.
That
is why we read in 1 Corinthians 1:30, "Christ
is made unto us righteousness.”
Get absorbed in this truth and guilt will never again take a hold of
you. Bathe yourself in the knowledge that all your guilt and sin was
charged to Christ’s account and that all His righteousness is
reckoned to yours. We can never hear enough of this glorious
truth!
Adoption
It’s
good to be forgiven and accepted as righteous, but it’s even better
to be made a child of God. And that’s exactly what happened to
us as a result of the gospel. We are children of God by faith in
Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26). As His children, the Father loves
us in the same way He loves Christ!
We don’t have
to try to make God love us. A child doesn’t have to cajole a
good parent into love. It’s not, therefore, a presumption for
us to say (and to keep saying), “God loves me.” The fact
is, if you are a believer, He’s crazy about you!
Hard
for us to believe isn’t it? That’s because we know what we are
really like. We live with ourselves. Everywhere we go, there we
are! We’ve taken a good look at ourselves and found that
there’s not too much to love in there. Too often we don’t feel
loved because we feel unlovable. Many of us have developed, ‘an
orphaned heart’! We
feel the Lord couldn’t really love us.
Listen to me,
I’ve got some good news. The more we know the gospel and its
mercies, the more we will realize that we don’t have to feel
loved. We need to stop trying to feel His love and, instead,
begin to believe His love. We are His children; we are in Christ
and we are loved! Confess it and claim it. Believe this
gospel mercy and begin to enjoy life.
Before we finish,
listen to this … “Behold
what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be
called sons
of God”
(1John 3:1).
What manner of love indeed!
And
that’s the Gospel Truth!
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