We are who we are because He is who He is!

“Remember, Lord, Your compassion and your faithful love, for they have existed from antiquity. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my acts of rebellion; in keeping with your faithful love, remember me because of Your goodness Lord.” (Psalm 25:6-7 HCSB).

Powerful verses. Verse seven begins with asking God to remember something, verse 8 pleads with Him to forget something. The two prayers fit perfectly together.

Let us never forget that we can have forgiveness of sins not because we earn or deserve such forgiveness but because God is loving and compassionate. David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit catches it beautifully in this passage. God’s forgiveness is because of who He is, not because of who we are! I fear we sometimes tend to forget this. That is why so many professed Christians fall prey to spiritual pride. They think they are something. Like the old quip, “I don’t smoke and I don’t chew and I don’t go with girls who do!” There is, in that saying, a sad ring of fallacious truth.

What do I mean? Many of us in the Christian church tend to view others through the lens of our own standards. The person who has never struggled with alcohol for instance looks askance at the person who does. We tend to condemn with a smug, “If they wouldn’t have tired it, they wouldn’t have become addicted. Look at me. I’ve never had that problem.” Be honest. How many times have we stood in the pharisaical judgment halls? I’ve done it (I’m ashamed to say).

This is an important point so let me drive it home. We Baptists love to hold revivals. We have one every year whether we need it or not. In those revivals one message will be given over to the sin of alcohol. My experience is I have never been in one of these revivals where that has not been mentioned. In some cases the call is to a new prohibition period if we could somehow manage it.

Now I recognize that alcohol is dangerous. Don’t get me wrong. The problem isn’t in the message, it is in who this message is being given to. My experience is that most of those in our meetings who will take time to attend those meetings don’t struggle with this demon. The result is those who attend the meetings grow smug in what they don’t do, without ever being challenged by the weightier things of the law–gossip, hatred, strife, divisions, etc. The end result is, we begin to believe we are holy because we don’t participate in certain activities when the real attitudes of our hearts are anything but holy!

What does any of this have to do with our text? Here’s what I know: there is no room for pride in the Christian heart. The Bible says, “God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble.” (James 4:6 NLT).

These two verses is Psalm remind us that our standing in Christ is because of God’s mercy, love, compassion and grace not because we grew up Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, etc. We are who we are because He is who He is! Let us never forget this. Let us always live our lives mindful that God sets us into His forever family not because of our goodness but because of His goodness. We don’t deserve forgiveness, we receive forgiveness because He is a God of love who created us for the purpose of demonstrating that love to all His creation.