“We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Being children of light involves loving others like Christ through the Spirit. To love the world, we must first have love in us: we must receive love from the Trinity and give it to ourselves, and then share it with others. To prevent us from receiving and giving love, Satan likes to use our sinful habits, our condemnation fears, our brokenness, the father’s wound, our poor identity, and a lack of trust in the Father’s love. By trying to make us believe, “we are viewed as ‘bad’ by our ‘father’, the devil aims to prevent us from shining brightly as children of light (which happens when we abide in the Spirit) so those in slavery of sin will remain in darkness.
Many don’t love others because they are broken, they don’t believe God loves them, and because they constantly fear condemnation from God after they sin. All of these can interfere with our experience of intimacy with God and thus hinder our effectiveness as ambassadors for Christ and children of light.
When we have a sense of separation from God’s love, it can also potentially cause struggles in abiding in the spirit. When we don’t properly abide in the Spirit consistently, we may often struggle in receiving empowerment from the Spirit not to sin, for the Vine (John 15) to produce fruit of the Spirit love, etc. in us, and to obtain the necessary leading and empowerment of the Spirit to fulfill our God-given dreams – all essentials toward effectively shining brightly as children of light.
The devil knows this; therefore, he likes to create in us a sense of separation from God’s love through the father’s wound, condemnation, as well as desires to earn God’s love and acceptance through striving for perfection in the performance of not sinning.
Father’s Wound
If you have a father’s wound, chances are your bad earthly father had a negative influence on how you perceive God’s character and yourself.
If you are a Christian, you are a child of God, fearfully and wonderfully made, perfectly loved by a perfect Abba Father. Your earthly father was human: flawed, with a sinful nature, imperfect in loving people. God is deity, perfect in all ways, perfect all the time. He perfectly loves you always. He also knows everything about being an ideal father.
The price God paid for your adoptions was His Son’s life, who voluntarily chose to die for you. Before God chose Christ to die, God knew all of your sins, faults, imperfections, and mistakes you would ever make in your life. Still, He wanted you to be His child. “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
No one is perfect. No one is immune to sinning and failing as an ambassador for Christ. We all have allowed our sins to darken our light. Still, God will never condemn you if you belong to Christ.
Because of justification, God not only chooses not to condemn us when we sin, He also forgets our sins as “far as the east is from the west.” Being justified means we will always be “legally declared righteous” in God’s eyes, as we have Christ’s righteousness. Although we are, in reality, sinners by our behavior, our holy and just God will always, when we sin, decide to view us as righteous in His sight because Christ paid the penalty for all our sins. Because you are justified, you will always be eternally loved, completely forgiven, and accepted by God. This is our identity in Christ as children of God, which always trumps our identity as ambassadors for Christ.
“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good” (C.S. Lewis).
We all have brokenness, caused by the consequences of sin, that only God’s love can heal. When we know our Abba Father loves us, when we receive His love, and then love ourselves with that same love, His healing process is on its way to come to fruition.
Unfortunately, many with a father’s wound often distrust God’s perfect love toward them. They either are unaware of, or disbelieve, their identity in Christ as loved, forgiven, accepted children of God. Rather than believing in the freedom of not being condemned and “not under the law, but by grace”, we all have times when we instead try to earn God’s approval and love by striving to be perfect in not sinning.
After we fail in trying, the devil implants thoughts like “Well, maybe I don’t deserve God’s love” in our minds, leading us to doubt the trueness of God’s perfect love and acceptance of us. The truth is no one deserves God’s love; we are loved and accepted by His grace, not on our performance of doing good works. We become children of God through salvation by grace, and we are daily loved and accepted by God because of grace, not because of our works. If God chose to love and accept us based on our performance, He would probably choose not to love and accept anyone, because no one is righteous based on works; all our good deeds are like filthy rags to Him. Thankfully, He accepts and loves His children based upon grace, and not on our performance.
In our daily walk with God, when we have thoughts about not sinning, we should meditate on the beauty of God’s grace to us and our righteousness in Christ, rather than obsessing about being perfect in not sinning and putting unhealthy pressures on ourselves toward sanctification. According to Pastor Bryce Gernand, “When we focus on sin, it grows bigger in our hearts and minds due to our fear of it (committing it and its consequences). Thus, the lure to sin becomes more potent in our minds.” Rather than living in fear of falling into sin and fearing condemnation, we must remember the truth of our identity in Christ: we are justified forever and never to be condemned by a perfect Abba Father who perfectly loves and accepts us because of grace.
You are justified forever. It was a gift of God, not something we earned by merit but freely given because of grace. We are “no longer under the law, but under grace”; we don’t have to strive for perfection in performance to maintain right standing with God. Stop trying to keep a “sin scorecard”- a daily inventory of every sin you do or don’t commit. Instead, focus on His perfect love, grace, and acceptance toward you as you abide in Him daily.
Nothing on earth, including all your sins and imperfections, can ever separate you from the Father’s perfect love. His love toward you will always be unconditional; His grace to His children, never-ending.
Final Thoughts
Freedom comes from knowing the truth of your identity in Christ. When we finally firmly believe that Abba Father is a perfect Father who perfectly loves us, we can receive His unconditional love more fully, which can heal any wound caused by an earthly father.
We need balance when striving not to sin through the Spirit on a daily basis. We shouldn’t go to one extreme and deliberately choose to sin to receive more grace. On the other hand, we shouldn’t go to the other extreme, always living in fear of sin, always trying to be perfect to maintain a good standing with God, and always being afraid of condemnation, either. When we are on either end of the spectrum, it presumably can lead to difficulties in abiding in the Spirit.
Satan knows this, and he aims to prevent you from abiding by attempting to create a sense of separation from God’s love. However, if you recognize his lies and firmly believe the truth of your identity in Christ in your heart, you can experience victory over these enemy ploys.
Through the Spirit, you can strive to make a significant impact in this world by being children of light, consistently abiding in Him and receiving His guidance and empowerment to do all things.
Other Articles in This Series
Sources:
https://www.gotquestions.org/no-condemnation.html
https://www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/2019/03/11/breaking-free-from-the-performance-trap/