Seeing Yourself as God Sees You
I have a red pickup I really like. I’ve hauled hundreds of board feet of lumber, several pianos (including one grand piano), and the occasional load of plants and flowers for my wife. I love my red pickup, but I rarely drive it these days. There is still the occasional trip for something big, but because of my work schedule and habits, I rarely need it.
On the other hand, my oldest son’s car died. I encouraged him to drive my truck and save up until he can pay cash for his next vehicle. And that’s what he did. But along the way, he fell in love with my truck. So one afternoon, I heard these words: “Dad, I’d like to buy your truck.”
My wife and I have another car we share and 98% of the time, that’s the car I’m in, and that’s the car I drive. So, I agreed to give my truck to my son—with the caveat that if I get a hankering to pick up a piano and repurpose it, I can use the truck.
That was a few months ago, and I’ve encouraged my son to keep saving and avoid the car note. We haven’t transferred the car title yet, so legally this is still my truck, but I see it as his truck.
This is exactly what God has done for us. We need righteousness. It is the only way we can stand before God. It is the only way we can have eternal life, but we are so in debt to our sin that we cannot afford or earn righteousness—and we never will.
Christ, on the other hand, is overflowing with righteousness. He is righteous (1 Cor. 1:30). In the most incredible moment in history, Jesus made the great exchange. He took our sin upon Himself and gave us His righteousness.
“He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
I have to remind myself that I have no righteousness of my own. Left on my own, my heart is bent toward unrighteousness. But when I placed my trust in Christ, Christ imputed (transferred) His righteousness to me.
I did nothing to earn that. I just trusted and believed. Abram did the same. God made a promise to Abram, and Abram took God at His word.
“Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).
I like the analogy J. I. Packer made:
In English society, a commoner who marries a Lord thereby becomes a Lady, and one who marries a Duke or a Prince becomes a Duchess or a Princess, simply by virtue of who her husband is; his dignity now embraces her, so that hers now matches his. [J.I. Packer, Weakness is the Way (Crossway, 2013), 46-47.]
Packer goes on to say that as the Father embraces the Son as perfectly righteous, He embrace us along with Christ. He sees us in Christ.
That’s a good way for us to see ourselves. If you are a believer and follower of Christ …
- You are the righteousness of God because of Christ.
- You are fully embraced by God.
- You are a child of the King.
That’s better than any car title.
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This post supports the study “God’s Promise of Blessing” in Bible Studies for Life and YOU.
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