The Wednesday Word ~ 07 May, 2025 A.D.

The Gospel Believer, Part II

Christ Is All and In All—Colossians 3:11

Have you ever felt that, as a follower of Christ, you are a complete failure? In this scenario you have 2 choices-

1). Quit.

2). Learn to believingly preach the Gospel to yourself!

 

What do I mean by preaching the Gospel to yourselves?

 

I mean that we should continually remind ourselves that our acceptance in Heaven is neither because of us nor because of our works or successes. Our acceptance in Heaven is because of the person and work of another ... the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are not the centre of all things.  Jesus is and it’s the Father’s verdict on Christ that is of central importance! And what is the Father’s verdict? His verdict on Christ is, “This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). That is why today believers are, Accepted in the Beloved One (see Ephesians 1:6). And that means you!  You may be dejected and distressed when you look at yourself but preach the gospel to yourself and apply it. Speak to yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. (Ephesians 5:19).  For example, quote the words of a Gospel hymn and say,

 “Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears;

The bloody sacrifice on my behalf appears:

Before the throne my Surety stands,

 My name is written on His hands.”

 

Tell yourself that you have a Saviour, the Lord Jesus, Who by His death has cleansed your failures. Tell yourself that He was raised from the dead and now ever lives as our High Priest in Heaven.

 God does not see our sins and count them against us.

What does God see?

He sees our perfect Priest,

His perfect Son,

The one and only perfect human,

His perfect sacrifice

His perfect blood!

And the even more wonderful truth is that Jesus does not have to even say anything on our behalf.  All He has to do is appear for us (see Hebrews 9:24-28).

The Father sees our priest’s entire perfections and is more than satisfied with Him. Yes indeed, God wants us to confess our sins, but we are not to make them the focus of our life. Instead, He wants us to focus on Christ, His finished work and resurrection. By doing so, we have the surest way to grow in grace.

The Father looks at us through the lens of Christ Jesus.

He blesses us though we don’t deserve it (Ephesians 1:3).

The blood of Christ blots out our sins like a cloud (Isaiah 44:22).

Our sins are cast into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19).

We are full of sin and, by rights, should be punished. but Christ has been punished in our stead (Romans 5:6-9).  Keep telling yourself and confessing these kinds of Gospel Truths.

How sub-standard are our works!  We dare not bring them before God as evidence that we should in any way be blessed. Our works? …What a wretched addition to make to the glorious Finished Work.

The Gospel truth is that all the merits of Jesus have become our merits. They are imputed (reckoned) to us. Likewise, all the sufferings of Jesus are now reckoned as our sufferings. A Gospel preacher said, “You stand before God as if you were Christ, because Christ stood before God as if He were you.”

 

And that’s the Gospel Truth!

 

-preacher Miles McKee