When your son comes to you with a crayon drawing of the family, you don’t concern yourself with the disproportionate heads, cyclops eyes, or stick torsos. You see growth. You see love. You see your son. That’s what is going on the refrigerator.
Not the mistakes – the masterpiece.
Are you waiting to turn in perfect artwork to God? Some may say, “Go ahead. He’ll take it, whatever you do.” That’s a misapplication of this illustration, and it is devoid of any biblical foundation.
Here is the truth of it:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:3-6, Unless otherwise stated: Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Used by permission. All rights reserved).
If we are “in Christ” we have every spiritual blessing. God has made a contract (covenant) and ratified it with His blood (Heb 9:16-28), making all who abide by it adopted children (Rom 8:12-17) and heirs of the Father’s promises.
When we walk outside of the guidance of God’s Word, we walk in darkness (John 3:19-21; 17:17; 1 John 1:5-7; 2:3-6). Your parents will still love you, despite the ketchup art done secretly in the hallway. They just won’t be happy with your work. It won’t be stored in the scrapbook of your accomplishments.
What works are accepted by God? Faithfulness in His Son makes us “accepted in the Beloved.” It is a life of faith, living by the Word of God (Rom 10:17), that will be counted as righteousness through Christ (Rom 4:24-5:1).
Have you been putting off complete investment in service to God until you feel like you can do enough? You can’t. It isn’t good enough. It will never be perfect. However, if you give it to Him through faith in Christ, He sees His Son.
Not the mistakes – The masterpiece.
Accepted in the Beloved,
Van
