Grace: The Door is Never Closed, Part 1
In this installment of our series from his book, Why Grace Changes Everything, Pastor Chuck reminds us that just by believing in Jesus Christ, God accounts us as righteous. Chuck examines our futile efforts to set up our own moral standards of righteousness, including through modern psychological theories.
As wonderful as it is, forgiveness is only half the story of the gospel of grace. There are many people who believe God has forgiven us in Christ. Where they have trouble is the second half of the good news: That just by believing in Jesus Christ, God accounts us righteous. Not everybody believes that—not by a long shot. Various groups have established standards of righteousness, yet they seldom agree upon what those standards should be.
Is Gold In or Out?
Not so very long ago, some groups taught that it was unrighteous to wear buttons. They used hooks and eyes for their garments and wouldn’t think of wearing buttons on anything. “You wear buttons?” they’d say. “How unrighteous can you be? Shame!” Even today there are groups who teach that wearing gold is utterly sinful; you cannot possibly be righteous if you wear gold. Throughout history people have established varying standards of righteousness—always with the idea that if they adhered to this particular standard, God would accept them.
There is, however, a real problem with trying to establish a righteousness by laws or by works. The fact is, we rarely live up even to our own standards!
Each of us accepts a moral standard that we consider good and right. This is what I really am, or at least what I would be were it not for outside hinderances. Psychologists call it our “superego”, our ideal self. Unfortunately, no one knows the “real me.” Why? Because the “real me” is perfect. In fact, I don’t even know the real me because circumstances constantly keep me from being as wonderful as I really am.
Along with the superego, psychologists talk about the “ego,” which is the real self, the true you. Sadly, the true you is never up to the standards of the ideal you.
Now, if there is a vast difference between your superego and your ego, you’re considered a maladjusted person. On the other hand, if you know you’re not perfect and you don’t have such a high standard for the ideal you, then you are congratulated as a well-adjusted person.
Psychologists often seek to bring down the standards of a person’s superego by telling the patient he has set impractical goals. “Nobody is that perfect; nobody is that good,” they will say. “What you are doing isn’t so abnormal. Everybody does it. You shouldn’t be trying to set such high standards for yourself!” These therapists are constantly trying to narrow the difference between the superego and the ego so that we might enjoy more well-balanced lives. They seek a cure by bringing down the superego.
Contrast that with the work of Jesus. He doesn’t try to lower the superego; He aims to bring up the ego. He wants to lift up the real you!
Even though the real me is well below the ideal me, nevertheless I am righteous before God and He looks at me as perfectly righteous because of my faith in Jesus Christ.
This is the second aspect of the gospel of grace. First, all of your sins have been taken care of, washed, and forgiven because of your faith in Jesus Christ. Second, God looks at you as righteous because of your believing in Jesus Christ. Apart from what you are doing or not doing, apart from keeping any code of ethics, God is imputing righteousness to your account because you believe upon Jesus Christ.
This is the glorious gospel, the good news. To know that God accepts me by faith in Jesus Christ and that my righteousness is through faith in Jesus Christ is good news indeed!
In our next installment, Chuck explains more about why this truth—that God accepts me by faith in Jesus and not my works—is such good news.
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