Being Christians we sometimes fail to recognize or measure how blessed we are. I am not referring to the materialistic things we possess or the family God gave us or any other thing or person of the earth. I am referring to the absolute freedom and the sense of guarantee we received through Christ. It is the freedom and guarantee that no bars can restrain. For because of it we are what we are now, i.e. free and justified, and because of it we have what we have now be it riches, family or other things. The reason we are at peace with God and men and are filled with peace and joy is because we are blessed in a unique and spectacular way. The more we sip on it the more we can count the wonderful state of life God has blessed us with. “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED” (Rom. 4:7).
Believers that are determined to take this blessedness throughout their life will have an awesome relationship with God. What ails men the most is the lack of forgiveness or the lack of knowledge of it. What this means is sin reigns in them absolutely. Sin appears to be helping them do the right things at right times, but in reality it puts them under the cloak of deception so they assume they are doing right in a given moment. They are under deception, since the fruit of sin never gives freedom, but rather imprisons them even more to circumstances. But believers are different in that their lawless deeds and sins have been forgiven, for God has credited them with righteousness that is by faith. This righteousness is credited, because they believed God justifies the ungodly. It is at this point blessedness begins. God through Christ has forgiven us, believers, of all our past, present and future sins. Otherwise, forgiveness cannot be considered blessed.
God’s righteousness works to invoke His laws in us. It calls on faith to provoke us to apply those laws so that we profit. Faith guides us to uphold righteousness while not knowing the outcome, but believing there will be a positive and beneficial outcome. This is the reason we confidently confess our sins to God. For we know we will be forgiven. Hence, we are continually blessed, meaning we are never out of God’s sight. To seek forgiveness is to maintain that awesome relationship with God and is not re-establishing salvation; it means to carry His righteousness. To be forgiven or to be allowed to maintain relationship with God is God’s ultimate blessing to us. By it alone all things He does and wills to do for us are established. Paul said, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9).
You see, because God has chosen to bless us with His forgiveness, our lawless deeds and sins cannot destine us to His wrath. When we are blessed with forgiveness, we are meant to obtain salvation through Christ. But if He has not destined us to wrath, it means He has destined us to glory and honor. It indicates that God is willing to work with us or strive with us so that we accomplish that which He desired in us while our part is to obey and confess when failed. This God has availed us, since He chose to forgive us forever in His Son. This has nothing to do with us, but an act of God alone.
Now the real part is to understand who the blessed ones are. We can all claim to be saved and have our reasons for it, but the Word of God has a unique requirement. In other words, to be counted as blessed along with those whose lawless deeds and sins were forgotten by God we should have fulfilled this Scripture. “The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son” (1 John 5:10). The Father has spoken concerning the Son in that there is life in no one else, but in the Son. If we have believed it with all our heart, righteousness has been credited to us. And that righteousness continues to work in us to uphold God’s glory. The proof that each one of us has God’s testimony concerning the Son is by the manner we were saved. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8).
We have done nothing, but believed in the testimony of God. Grace has been poured on us and is continually poured upon us. If faith leads to righteousness being credited to us, grace is the outcome of it all. Grace that guarantees salvation doesn’t appear until righteousness is established in us. Once God establishes it in us it is all grace that runs, dictates and drives our lives. Hence, we are able to know when we grieve God (the Spirit) and rejoice when we please Him; for righteousness and faith have turned our inner man into God’s house. It is impossible to say that to be forgiven of lawless deeds and sins is no longer blessed. Only to those who dwell on works it appears possible. The biggest reason grace is necessary for eternal life is that we can never satisfy God with works; for they are performed in the flesh. When God has chosen to pour His grace on us, it means He willingly chose to cover our every lawless deed and sin. Hence, it is only blessed to be covered of all our sin. So, at any point in life we should not consider ourselves separated from God. For faith, righteousness and grace all work together in us that we remain in God’s sight. Nothing outwits them. This is the ultimate blessedness of God toward us. So, Paul said, “But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged” (1 Cor. 11:31).
When those three are working in us, it is impossible to ignore rightly judging ourselves. Jesus said the following to Peter knowing that moments later He would reveal the worst thing about him. “Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, where are You going?’ Jesus answered, ‘Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later’” (John 13:36). Moments later Jesus told Peter that he would deny Him three times. Yet, this was preceded by the promise that Peter would follow Him to heaven. Jesus knew that Peter would eventually judge himself rightly. God knows how weak we are. What He counts the most in us is the salvation He bestowed on us. He works in us based on it. Hence, He Himself asserted that a man whose sins and lawless deeds are covered is blessed. It was the same Peter that answered the following question. “And He said to them, ‘but who do you say that I am?’ And Peter answered and said, ‘The Christ of God’” (Luke 9:20).
Perhaps the others were still wondering at Jesus’ question or Peter was just the quickest of them all, but he said what he believed. That belief brought into him God’s righteousness and grace that guaranteed him a place with Christ in heaven. What we confess of Christ in our hearts and how determines our relationship with God. It determines whether faith, righteousness and grace are working together in us. If they are in us, we can never be out of God’s sight. Thanks be to God for His wonderful kindness!