The assumption for many people is that they in some way need to earn their place when it comes to God’s kingdom. He’s not going to want me until I’ve sorted out my addictions! I can’t be worthy to come and worship at church before I’ve dealt with all my demons! And to be honest it’s not a surprising point of view – that’s the way things often tend to work here on Earth. For an employer it’s not enough that you say you’ll go to rehab – they want so see some evidence of concrete change.
But to our amazement, this is not how it goes in God’s kingdom. As we read his word, we find that even before we ever thought to ask him for help – before we even knew there was a problem – he died for us. Such was his love for the people he had made that, while we were still his enemies, he was willing to pay the very highest price to atone for our sins. He isn’t waiting for you to reach a certain level of righteousness before he will take you on, because in truth whatever we set our sights on, even if we can achieve it, would not be enough. This is what was required to make you acceptable to God: the blood of his own son, God himself in human form, Jesus Christ. To claim that you still need to work for God’s acceptance is like claiming that the death of Jesus wasn’t enough.
God’s heart for Christians is that they should become more and more like Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18), letting go of old habits, sinful ways, ungodly desires. It takes time – sometimes feeling like 2 steps forward and 1, or even 2 steps back – but more importantly it requires the help of the Holy Spirit. You can keep striving for acceptance in your own strength, perhaps giving up in exhaustion, or you can give your life to God now, and find both help and hope in his kingdom.
