Am I Acceptable to God?

Here is the question that hounds the human soul: Am I acceptable to God?

We live in a world of performance standards. Is my work acceptable? Is my body acceptable? Is my love acceptable? We assume God must use these standards also. Is my faith acceptable? Is my giving acceptable? Are my good works acceptable? Am I acceptable?

But God doesn’t evaluate us this way. In fact, God doesn’t evaluate us at all. Instead, God evaluates Jesus. When God looks at Jesus, he sees perfection: A person without sin, without malice, without failure. Jesus gets a perfect score. Jesus is perfectly acceptable.

Somehow this doesn’t make us feel better. Yes, we know Jesus is perfect, and we are not. So doesn’t that just show how unacceptable we are to God?

Theologically, the answer is Yes. We can never meet God’s standards. And yet, as Christians, we are perfectly accepted by God. Why? Because when God looks at us, he doesn’t see our imperfections. Instead, God sees Jesus’ perfection. God credits Jesus’ perfection to our accounts. We owe nothing. We are given everything, free of charge.

Hmm. We can understand this substitutionary atonement stuff intellectually— Jesus died for my sins, so that I don’t have to pay for my sins— but it’s hard to understand this emotionally. It still leaves open the question: Why would Jesus die for my sins?

God’s answer to this question obliterates the performance standards set up by the world, our employers, our partners, our children, our friends, and ourselves. God’s answer is: Jesus died for our sins because God loves us.

But wait— Why does God love us? God loves us because God loves us. There is nothing we can do about it. God simply chose to love us. But why? Because God loves us.

This circular reasoning seems perplexing until we look at human love. Why does one person love another enough to marry that person? Because we love that particular person. But why? Because we love that person. There’s nothing we can do about it. That’s why.

This is the mystery of human love, and it also is the mystery of God’s love for us. We aren’t acceptable to God because we perform. We’re acceptable because God loves us. God loves you because God loves you. If you can believe this one amazing truth, it will change your life.