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Humility is seeing ourselves as God sees us

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I saw that quote on a church sign recently. You know the ones — these are the signs that have quippy sayings that are intended to make you think, and sometimes make you groan. Like most quotes, some are better than others. This one got my attention though, because I wasn’t sure if I agreed with it or not.

How do you think God sees you?

Let me ask you this — if I had a huge, ugly brown spot on my back, would you ever know about this blemish if every time you saw me I was wearing a shirt? Scripture tells me that at the time I was baptized, I was clothed with Christ.

26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Galatians 3:26-27

Therefore, since I am clothed with Christ, whenever God looks at me He sees Jesus. He doesn’t see the blemishes that abound — the blemishes that Jesus’ blood washed clean (1 Peter 1:18-19; 1 John 1:7). He sees me as pure and spotless as the day I was born.

And this brings up another question — if God sees us as being clothed with Christ, and doesn’t see our blemishes, shouldn’t we see His children in the same state? How easy it is to focus on each others’ dirty laundry and blemishes, when we should see our fellow life-strugglers as washed clean with the same blood as we have been.

So, back to the original quote and the question it provoked — is humility seeing ourselves as God sees us? I think not. “Humility is seeing ourselves as we would be without Jesus.” How’s that for a re-write?

Living without sin — it IS possible!

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8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.…10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. 1 John 1:8, 10

That seems pretty clear — we all sin. That’s exactly what Paul wrote to the Romans as well — “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23). That word “all” is pretty inclusive.

Ok, so no argument there. I’m a sinner. But I want to be this guy: “…the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him” (Psalm 32:2, quoted in Romans 4:8).

Quick recap: No one can claim to be without sin. If we claim we haven’t sinned, we’re calling God a liar. There is someone who, when he sins, God doesn’t count it against him.

Do I have that straight? Because it’s not really adding up.

It’s not adding up because I’m not considering the whole context. Let’s see that 1 John passage again:

5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. 1 John 1:5-10

“All have sinned”, but if we don’t see ourselves as sinners, we have no need to confess anything (v. 9), do we? I believe John is telling us that if you’re “living in the light”, as opposed to “living in darkness” (v. 6), your focus is on Jesus rather than on yourself, and you’re living for Him rather than for yourself. If that is the case, then you are the one “whose sin the Lord will never count against him” (Psalm 32:2). Therefore in a very real sense you can claim, through the victory of Jesus, that you have no sin because Jesus has taken it away! Those who claim because of their own pride and their own goodness that they have no sin — they are deceived indeed, and have no truth in them (v. 8).

When is a Christian forgiven?

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I’ve been a Christian for 47 years. In that amount of time I’ve had several “Aha!” moments, which I like to call “hermeneutical epiphanies“. I’ve written about some of those in previous posts. One passage that particularly sticks in my mind from years past is Psalm 32:1-2, as quoted by the apostle Paul in the book of Romans:

“Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.” Romans 4:7

Now that actually sounds pretty good — “they whose transgressions are forgiven”. He’s just talking about all Christians then, right? Well yeah, sort of. But…

  1. That couldn’t have been whom David was thinking of when he originally wrote the verse. It could have been a prophecy about Christians, of course, but I don’t believe it was. The full context of Psalm 32 certainly wouldn’t lead one to that conclusion.
  2. That wasn’t the verse that caused me to really think about forgiveness anyway.

“Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” Romans 4:8

Nowwaitjustaminutehere. Are you telling me there are people (David and Paul both used the masculine noun, but the context here is clearly gender-neutral and includes both male and female) who, when they sin, are already cleansed?

Yes, that’s exactly what I believe it means.

Let’s take that thought to its logical conclusion. That means that whoever “the man” is, when he sins, it’s immediately as if he never sinned — and that’s before the “Lord, please forgive me. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

Yes, that’s right.

But won’t that lead one to conclude that he doesn’t have to really be concerned about sinning — that since he’s immediately forgiven anyway, it doesn’t really matter? Yes, it certainly may lead one to conclude that, but that would be a very immature, very un-Christian attitude, wouldn’t it? (And a very incorrect conclusion, I might hasten to add.)

Let’s look at another Scripture that may help us further understand justification (which was Paul’s subject in Romans 4 anyway):

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7

So for those who “walk in the light” (and it doesn’t take a great amount of study to understand what “in the light” means), the blood of Jesus “purifies” us when we sin? Right, but it’s important to notice what word John used here — purifies. Not purified. Not will purify. Purifies. Present tense — meaning that when we sin, that’s when Jesus’ blood purifies us. It’s immediate. Don’t take verse 7 of the chapter in isolation though. I encourage you to read the entire chapter of 1 John 1 for the full context.

So, back to the question that brought us here: “When is a Christian forgiven?” A Christian is forgiven at the moment he sins. The work of Jesus on the cross has already seen to that. And that, my friend, is cause for rejoicing!