Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Whether you know it or not, you and I have been making lists our entire lives. Two lists, really. The first is made up of all the right things that you have ever done. Things that you take pride in. Accomplishments. Maybe you finished a 5K and it was your all-time best. Maybe you're out here making friends like nobody's business, overcoming anxiety in a way that you never thought you'd be able to. It's a good list. It's one to be proud of.
Then we have our list of wrong things. These are the mistakes you've made that you wish you never would have made. Words you wish you never would have said. Sins you wish you never had committed. You look at both of these lists, and the second list oftentimes can feel a lot longer and more burdensome than the first list. I don't know if you guys are social media people or not, but the one negative comment out of a list of good ones hits the heart a little too hard. Those are the ones you remember the most.
A Joy-Filled Experience
Here's what I want to point out in this Scripture. It says that the disobedience that God forgives is supposed to be a joy-filled experience. When you've said yes to Jesus, you've accepted the hope that He gives to you. Here's what He does with your list of wrong things.
It's gone. It's wiped clean. You are cleansed by the blood of Jesus, making you right and perfect in the sight of God. The things Jesus throws away on your behalf are things you can throw away too. If He forgives you of your sin, you can let those things go yourself.
What About Our Good Deeds?
That means we're left with one more list. All the right things. But we've got a problem. In Isaiah, the Bible says that all of our good deeds and our righteousness in the sight of God and in light of Him and His perfection are dirty rags. So, here's what happens to all of our right deeds that we do in our own strength. In light of God, they mean nothing.
What are we supposed to do if we can't identify ourselves by all the wrong we've done, and we also can't identify ourselves by all the right we've done? What are we supposed to think? What are we supposed to believe?
Saved by Grace Through Faith
The Bible says that it is by grace we have been saved through faith, not by works, so that we can't boast. If we're throwing out all of our negative things, all of our sins, all of our acts of disobedience, and we can't hold our good works in front of Jesus as a way and as a proof to get into heaven, what we need to do is pick up the identity of Jesus. Everything that He has done on our behalf was done through grace. We receive those works in faith, and we say yes to everything He's ever done so that when God looks at us, He doesn't see us for the rights, for the wrongs. He sees us the way He sees Jesus.
I want to encourage you today, no matter what it is you're going through, maybe you've experienced some regrets, and you're holding that list of negatives in front of the mirror, and you can't stop staring at it. Remember that when you said yes to Jesus, you've received the gift of salvation. You can throw that list away just like He has for you. When you come to Him, trying to prove yourself and all the good things you've done, remember the perfect work done once for all of us happened through Jesus on the cross, and you can hold on to that as your security.
