Proverbs 20:9
No one can say, “I am innocent; I have never done anything wrong.” [NCV]
All have sinned & fallen short of YHWH.
We have all screwed up.
We are all saved by the exact same outside-of-ourself-beyond-our-power epic historical event: Jesus’ atoning sacrifice.
So we are never in position to judge.
Nor are we ever in a position to think of ourselves as more hopeless than anyone else.
John 13:3-5
Jesus knew that the Father had given Him power over everything and that He had come from God and was going back to God. So during the meal Jesus stood up and took off His outer clothing. Taking a towel, He wrapped it around His waist. Then He poured water into a bowl and began to wash the followers’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.
Jesus knew He had all power over the the universe, heaven, EVERYTHING…
So He washed these dude’s stinky filthy feet..
When you know, ultimately, who you are…who’s you are, nothing is beneath you. No act of service is too small or unimportant.
You are totally free.
Free from anyone or anything else defining who you are.
Your true story is what God has written about you.
Who’s story do you choose to believe about yourself?
Your abusive/absent earthly father’s?
Your unloving high school teacher’s?
Your former boss’?
Society’s?
The military’s?
False friends who have burned you?
Or God’s thru the giving of His Son for you, ascribing you infinite value?
Who do you allow to define you?
Who do you allow to define you?
Who do you allow to define you?
Who knows the truth about who you really are? The whole truth? Who knows you? Who has the authority to say who you are?
For a hint: Read Psalm 139:1-18
Also:
Isaiah 43:18-19a,25 [NCV]
The LORD says, “Forget about what happened before, and do not think about the past. Look at the new things I am going to do. It’s already happening. Don’t you see it?”….I, I am the One who erases all your sins, for my sake; I will not remember your sins.”
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 [NLT]
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know Him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.