Because of justification, God views us “holy and without fault in His sight”, although we daily sin. From justification attained through salvation, Christians have been adopted into God’s family, always being eternally loved, totally forgiven, completely accepted, and considered valuable by a perfect God in heaven, the most respected of all beings. We must daily believe all this as we connect daily to Abba Father, in spite of our Father’s wound.
“Adoption is the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even than justification.. . To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater”. (J. I. Packer)
Defined by Theopedia, “Adoption is that privilege, bestowed upon those who are united with Christ, and justified by faith, by which they are admitted into the family of God, adopted as his children, and made joint heirs with his own Son.”
When God justified us, He simply could have desired no relationship with us, daily focusing primarily on His personal affairs. Only choosing to sacrifice Christ to declare us unguilty, and not deciding to adopted us as His dearly beloved children, would easily suffice as an enormous act of benevolence. Instead, God chose to be a father to everyone, even when man was enemies with God.
According to Mark DeJesus, “there are two fundamental truths of your identity. You are a child of God. You are loved by God!”
‘Without a personal love relationship with God, we will struggle with our identity. Without a clear identity, we will search for love and meaning in all wrong places” (DeJesus). Until we firmly realize who we are in Christ, our lives will remain unfulfilled and unhealed from our Father’s wound.
“You must know, rest in, think through, and act upon your new identity – you are in Christ” (Sinclair B. Ferguson).
“Our identity rests in God’s relentless tenderness for us revealed in Jesus Christ” (Brennan Manning).
Justification resulted from God’s perfect love toward us as Christ died on the cross. The price Abba Father paid for our adoption was His dearly beloved Christ’s life, showing how valuable God deems us to be. Imagine the love of a person toward an adopted child choosing to sacrificing his other son’s life in order to obtain adoption. Priceless and valuable: that is how Abba Father views the worth of every adopted child of His, as God is perfect love, loves everyone equally the same, and has no favorites. If Satan ever tells you, “you are unloved”, look at the cross!
Because of justification, every Christian can experience God’s peace and perfect fatherly care, regardless of the frequency or the nature of their sins. Justification states every time we sin, God sees Christ’s perfect standing accrued to our account; consequently, God will always treat and regard every Christian as if he never sinned. Thus, because of His perfect grace and mercy, God will always choose to eternally love, completely forgive, and totally accept, every Christian. Every sin of every Christian of all humanity has been paid for on Calvary!
Before you were born, omniscient God knew everything about you. God knew every flaw, every sin and mistake you would make, every hair on your head, and every tear you would cry from your earthly father, choosing to adopt you as His child. Before you were born, He already chose to eternally love, totally forgive, and completely accept you. Everything about you, including everything you don’t like about yourself, He already knew about. Regardless, He chose to die for you, to pay for your adoption.
Don’t believe what your previous bad earthly father’s experiences taught you about the character of God. Don’t let those who hurt you in the past define your identity. You have a new identity, one in Christ, trumping the lies you heard during your childhood.
Imagine the past Christ suffered so you could become adopted by Abba Father. God also suffered greatly, for it was His Son He sacrificed. God desperately wants to be the perfect father in your life you never received from your earthly father, healing you from your Father’s wound. Whenever you feel nobody loves you, look at this website. See the pain Christ suffered on the cross for your sake: https://redeeminggod.com/crucifixion-physical-suffering-jesus/
Romans 5:8: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.
1 John 3:1: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
Two fundamental truths about your identity in Christ: You are a child of God, loved by a perfect Father in heaven!
“God does not justify us because we are worthy, but by justifying us make us worthy.” (Thomas Watson)
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Despite we habitually sin, God continually chooses to justify us. We don’t deserve grace; still, it is freely given. His great mercy and love expressed to us each time we sin, and the price that Christ paid so we can be justified, validates our worth. When the most respected of all respected beings, accepts and loves us how He does each day, it should make us feel really special!
Imagine if someone famous in the world we might esteem, such as Taylor Swift, Tom Brady, or LeBron James, chooses to love and accept us, even a small percentage of how God does every day to us, we would be bragging to everyone, saying, “Taylor Swift likes me and thinks I am cool”, as our identity (who we are) is being defined by the acceptance of those we associate with, in whom we reverently respect. Well, Taylor Swift is a nobody in comparison to God as God is the Creator of the heavens and the earths.
You are associated with God because you are His child. Imagine the special treatment that a son of a prime minister has with the prime minister’s staff? Well, you are a child of the Creator of the Universe. You are valuable in God’s eyes. Your association to Him validates your worth.
“Performance is not an evil word, but it was never meant to define your identity.” (Mark DeJesus)
After repeatedly experiencing rejection from their earthly father, many Christians have developed a rejection mindset toward Abba Father, anticipating and expecting God to reject them if they aren’t perfect. Just as they learned to try to win the approval and love of their earthly father through performance, they do the same with God. Many Christians try to attain or maintain their identity (that they are eternally loved, totally accepted, completely forgiven, considered valuable by God) through performance; they try to earn love from God that was already given to them by grace. Daily putting pressure on themselves toward being perfect in living the Christian life, tiring themselves out by being extremely devoted in spiritual practices like prayer, reading the Bible, church volunteering, and being a witness, many Christians try to earn identity and God’s love by trying to be a good person, rather than embracing their perfect standing with God, attained through justification:
“Religion: ‘My identity is built on being a good person.’ Gospel: ‘My identity is not built on my record or my performance but on Christ’s.’”(Timothy Keller)
Christ’s perfect standing to our account through justification is a gift of God (and not earned through works), when we accepted Christ as our Savior. “We are justified, not by giving anything to God – what we do – but by receiving from God, what Christ has done for us” (William Gurnall). That is the principle behind grace and justification which we must embrace as we daily live the Christian life, especially when we have perfectionistic motives to perform to win God’s love and approval.
“Justification is . . . a completed fact for the believer; it is not an ongoing process” (John MacArthur), Because of justification, we became children of God, receiving an identity of always being eternally loved, totally forgiven, and completely accepted. We are justified forever; it is “a completed fact, not an ongoing process.” We receive grace through faith, not performance.
Doing performance isn’t bad after there is a stable foundation of your identity grounded in God’s love; it is actually good to do it. However, performance is bad when it is used prior to an established foundation of your identity to Christ, when you strive for performance to prove yourself in order to establish your identity in Christ.
We should perform because we are accepted, not to perform to be accepted.
Getting Close With Abba Father
The term Abba Father signifies “Papa”, “a close familiarity.” God wants you to think of Him as “Papa”, desiring you to increasingly become closer and more familiar with His perfect love. He desperately wants to be the perfect father you never had, healing your Father’s wound, but He cannot do what free will disallows.
To be close to Him, you must firmly believe God is not the same as your bad earthly father. Come as a child daily to receive the unconditional love of Abba Father, trusting in the goodness of His character. When you truly experience Abba Father’s love, it will transform your life!
Sources:
Theopedia
Bing.com
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/why-adoption-is-a-higher-blessing-than-justification/
https://412teens.org/qna/what-is-my-Identity-in-Christ.php
Experiencing God’s Love As Your Father, Mark DeJesus
Exposing the Rejection Mindset, Mark DeJesus
Seeing God As A Perfect Father, Louie Giglio
https://www.azquotes.com/author/17128-J_I_Packer/tag/adoption
https://markdejesus.com/performance-based-christianity/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N_178ASBg0&t=1813s
https://www.azquotes.com/author/18107-Timothy_Keller/tag/identity
https://saddleback.com/connect/Articles/MAP/2019/1/15/LEARNING-MY-TRUE-IDENTITY-IN-CHRIST
https://www.christianquotes.info/quotes-by-topic/quotes-about-justification/
The Missing Commandment: Love Yourself, Jerry and Denise Basel