Today’s Scripture: John 17:4

“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.”

Many Christians grew up in homes where parental acceptance was largely based on academic, athletic, musical, or perhaps some other standard of achievement. Often they never quite felt as if they measured up to expectations, regardless of how successful they were. Then they transfer that sense of inadequacy to their relationship with God. They continually wonder: Is God pleased with me? Is He smiling on me with Fatherly favor?

The answer to that question is an unqualified yes. God is smiling on you with Fatherly favor. He is pleased with you because he sees you as holy and without blemish in Christ. Do you want to talk about performance? Then consider that Jesus could say matter-of-factly and without any pretentiousness, “I always do the things that are pleasing to him” (John 8:29).

When our Father looks at us, he does not see our miserable performance. Instead, he sees the perfect performance of Jesus. And because of the perfect holiness of Jesus, he sees us as holy and without blemish.

I like the translation of Ephesians 1:6 in the King James Version: “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” Or to be more direct, God has made us acceptable to himself through our union with Christ. You will never be accepted in yourself. You can never, to use a figure of speech, “scrub yourself clean.”

We never reach the point where we can look inside ourselves to find the holiness we need to stand before a holy God. But God in his grace has provided a perfect holiness in the person of his Son. Through our union with him we have been made holy. (Excerpt taken from Transforming Grace)

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