How Do I Meet God's Standards?

Three Men of God

If You, Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with You,
That You may be feared.

                                 Psalm 130:3-4

If you are anything like me, you know people who just seem to have it all together. You look at them and think, "oh, I wish I could have their talent, their looks, their personality, their faith." You admire people who always seem to be there for others. They are the people that you know you could call at two o'clock in the morning and they would not hesitate to help you out. When you compare yourself to such a person you know that you fall short. You know your life will never meet the standards that guide their every thought and deed. You would love to be such a servant of the Lord, but you know how weak you are.

You and I think that way because we are forgetful people. We think we have to dig in our heels and work hard to make ourselves acceptable to God. We forget that is impossible. It is not possible for us to ever meet God's standard of righteousness by our own effort. Remember how we were comparing ourselves to other people that we admire? That was foolish of us. They are not God's standard. Jesus is! God's standard is perfection and we cannot perfect ourselves, can we? Nobody can.

That is what GRACE is all about. God has given to believers the very righteousness of Christ. He has done for us what we could NEVER do for ourselves. He sees us as clean, as pure, and as lovely as Jesus. How can that be? It is a supernatural transaction where God took the righteousness of Christ and imputed it or credited it to those who are saved.

He has taken our failures, our weaknesses, and our sin and He has put them away from Himself. They are gone, never to be remembered by Him again. The Bible says He has cast them into the deepest sea and put them as far away as the East is from the West. We are forgiven. Forever.

The next time we are tempted to struggle for righteous lives, let's remember that we are clay in the Potter's hands. It is not what WE do by ourselves. It is not our own works. We are His and we can have confidence that He is working in and through us according to His plan and purpose for us.

Romans 5 says, "therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. . ."