We're not worthy!

Let’s face it. We’ve all had those moments in our walk with Christ when we felt unworthy – unworthy of His love, His sacrifice, His grace, His breath in our lungs. Sometimes the feeling arises after a single moment of weakness, like cursing at a reckless driver or taking a second look at a girl in the bikini. Sometimes it arises after yet another failure in a long string of similar failures, like drinking again when you know it’s a problem, or lying again.

But if we are truly honest with ourselves, we are unworthy.

Paul clearly stated we have all missed the mark when he said in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (NIV)

God is perfect. God is divine. God cannot abide the presence of sin, or more aptly, sin cannot survive in the presence of a holy God. And since our first act of selfishness, or our first choice to willfully disobey God’s commands, we became forever unworthy – unable to survive in the presence of a holy God. Thankfully, there is grace.

So then why, if grace is the answer, and the Spirit of the Living God lives within us, do we feel so unworthy, so unclean, so destitute when we sin?

That answer is as complicated as the question. For some of us, the separation from God caused by even the “tiniest” of sins is unbearable, and we feel unworthy. (I placed “tiniest” in quotes because we all know sin is sin.) For others, the Spirit of God within us is reminding us that we are moving away from him, and we feel unworthy. And for others, that selfsame Spirit is trying to get us to stop our destructive pattern and finally come to God. And for others yet, we don’t know why we feel unworthy.

Don’t get me wrong. The feeling is real. It is our human reaction to moving away from the One who loves us enough to send His Son to die in our place. We were created to commune with God, a holy God, and anything that gets in the way of that communing takes a toll. But what do we do? How do we overcome that feeling of unworthiness?

The easy answer, Christian, is to not sin in the first place. But if you’re like me, perfection is a goal not yet achieved. So the next best thing is to remember, God loves you. He made the ultimate sacrifice for you and in that, He gave you grace. Grace to approach His throne and seek His forgiveness. Grace to learn to love and forgive yourself even in the face of sin. His grace took the form of a Lamb who died for our sins and now sits and pleads our case to His Father, and that grace allows you to trust that the next time the choice arises and you have to pick between rejecting yourself and following Christ or turning your back on the One who died for you, you’ll have the spiritual strength to make the right choice.

So while we are unworthy, we are also worthy. Why?

Jesus’ blood – the only red that washes you white as snow.