Words of Encouragement

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, - Romans 8:1-3

The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight. To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. – Psalm 18:24-26


He is Risen, What Next? Our records are clear. I was speaking with someone on yesterday and this thought came to my mind. When we accepted the gift of salvation from Christ we also accepted a new start. The old life, our life of sin, lies; backbiting, etc. were erased and removed from our records. We were given a new start, a new record. As we walk this journey, all the things that need to be changed in us are not instantly removed. God’s longsuffering ways grants us his mercy to cover us as he gets our attention to those things that need to be changed.

When he gets our attention, he reminds us there is no condemnation now, you are free from this sin because you have seen it and repented of it. He then tells us go forward and come this way no more. I also began thinking, how are we called righteous, or faithful or blameless? Is it because we have always been righteous, or faithful or blameless in our walk? I can dare to say no. We are these things because our records are clear. They are clear because of the power of the blood. It washes away our sins. It washes away the sins we commit, even when in our hearts we thought we were doing right. It was the mercy that said, I will hold you today…and each day, until you see the full picture.

I have a question for us, when we finally see where we are not living up to God’s standard, does he beat us over the head with it? Does he bring back what we did wrong several years ago to remind us of how wrong we are; is he still judging us by our lack of understanding from 1999? No. He simply reassures us that he loves us and our records are clear. What we should take from this is, we as believers need to be more like God when dealing with each other. We are good at holding what someone did wrong, and not letting go of it. We want to forever see them through what they did wrong (real or perceived). Yet, we can take comfort in this, God says our records are clear! So even when someone wants to tell you about all the wrong you have done, you can say to yourself, “well if you check with God, he’ll tell you, my record is clear”. That thing isn’t even on the list anymore. That is how we are called faithful, righteous and blameless. It is because the blood continues to wash away the stains, leaving us spotless before God.

I pray for us today that we would rejoice in knowing that we have a clear record with God. Not so that we can boast, because the record isn’t clear by our own power, it is clear because of the power of Christ. We can rejoice and know when the enemy comes to condemn us; we can tell him there is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus, because his gift is continually perfecting me.