Military Medals.
The soldier above has fought for his country in a time of war. His fellow countryman have rightly honoured him with many medals for his courage and bravery.
In my last Blog I looked at how many Christians feel unworthy. Today, I want to show you how Christ has made us worthy and given us special honour.
If we look at ourselves, we will always see weakness, failure, inadequacy and unworthiness because looking inward always makes us sin conscious. The answer is not to look inward, but look outward to the cross and to see ourselves in Christ.
Christ is our representative man before God, and God found Him to be perfect, holy, righteous and complete. He therefore raised Him up, crowned Him as King and set Him at His own right hand.
The right hand in Hebrew culture is the place of blessing, honour and favour. When invited to a Hebrew home for a meal, the host would always seat the people in order of importance. Everybody knew that the person seated at the right hand of the host, was the special guest seated in the place of honour. (Lk 14:8-10)
This is why the mother of James and John lobbied Jesus on their behalf, that they might but sit at His left and right hand in the Kingdom. (Mt 20:20,21)
As Christians, you and I are new creations (2 Cor 5:17), we have been made righteous (2 Cor 5:21), holy (Eph 1:4), perfect & complete (Col 4:12), Kings and priests (1 Pet 2:9) and have been raised up and seated together in Christ at the Father’s right hand. (Eph 2:5,6)
This is why Paul says in Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. (NKJV).
The word, ‘accepted’ in the Greek , means ‘to grace someone’ and is expressed in 3 ways:
1) ACCEPTED: Because Christ is accepted, we too are totally accepted of the Father.
2) SPECIAL HONOUR: Because Christ is honoured we too have been given special honour.
3) HIGHLY FAVOURED: Because Christ is favoured, we too are highly favoured.
We have been graced by acceptance, special honour and are highly favoured in the sight of the Father; And because we have been graced, non of these things are dependant on what we have or have not done, they are dependant on who we are in Christ.
Therefore, if we fail, struggle with weaknesses and besetting sins etc – we never stop being accepted, honoured and highly favoured in the eyes of the Father. We should confess these words many times until they become revelation and change the way we see ourselves.
Now, speak this out loud to yourself: I am totally accepted at all times by my Father, He has given me special honour and seated me at His own right hand. He has highly favoured me, therefore, I expect good things to happen to me, not because I am worthy, but because He has made me worthy.
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