The Established Path of Discipleship

Dear brother and sister in Christ, how do you think God sees you on any given day? Is he disappointed in your performance as a Christian? Or is he impressed by your progress in holiness on any given day? Does he give you a daily report card? How you answer those questions reveals the primary motivator in your Christian life.

On any given day, God sees us as his sons and daughters. “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Yes, but we are not perfect sons. Most days, we are not even good sons. However, we are in the Son. We are in Christ. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8.1). Not only are we free from condemnation, but there is much more.

After Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). Paul’s primary identifier of Christians in the New Testament is the prepositional phrase “in Christ” or “in him.” Therefore, I do not believe it stretches the Scripture to conclude that since God is pleased with His Son and we are in His Son, then God is pleased with us. So, on any given day, God is pleased with us.

In fact, God sees us as fully righteous on any given day until the final judgment day. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). Today, we are just as righteous as we will be on the final day of judgment. We are righteous not because of what we have done but because of what Christ has done. His righteousness was imputed to us, and our sin was imputed to him.

So, if we see ourselves as children of God free from condemnation, sons and daughters with whom God is pleased and fully justified in the eyes of God, how does that affect our motivation? Won’t that make us minimize sin? On the contrary, Paul says, “How can we who died to sin still live in it” (Rom. 6:2)? Rather than being motivated by fear, guilt, or shame, we are motivated by grace. We joyfully run to the Father daily “and find grace and help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). We obey out of gratitude, empowered by the powerful grace of God.