Who rouses Him from among the dead, you also being dead to the offenses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He vivifies us together jointly with Him, dealing graciously with all our offenses, erasing the handwriting of the decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and has taken it away out of the midst, nailing it to the cross.
Colossians 2: 13-14, Concordant New Testament
In my years of being a believer and follower of Christ, I believe that there is but one obstacle which often prevents the believer from realizing who they are in Gods eyes. This has less to do with how we see the Lord than what it is we are taught about Him. For the Christian narrative has traditionally been that we serve a temperamental God who often vacillates from good to bad in His treatment of His children. One moment the Lord showers us with love when we are doing good. However, when we forget who we are and resort to negative behaviors, that same God who not so long ago showed us love now levels His discipline upon us. What's with that? We know that scripture tells us that God never changes {Malachi 3:6}, yet what do we make of this apparent contradiction in God? But is this really a contradiction of God? Does Gods behavior so blatantly change depending on how it is we conduct ourselves? Personally, I don't see things that way. In my experience, I am shown the love and mercy of the Lord regardless of how it is I conduct myself. To believe otherwise would be to call God a liar. Yes, we may PERCEIVE that God treats us differently when we act out, but is this really the case? Again, this is what we have been taught about God. This is not the nature of the indwelling God in me. For that we turn to the apostle John, who speaks to us of the one true nature of the Lord. God...is love {1 John 4:8}. Is there any credence, then, that God disciplines His children as any earthly father would? Certainly, but where our earthly parents may get wrapped up in the heat of the moment and turn loving discipline to abuse, it is God who allows His love nature to show in all He does. This is the God few believers come to see. Instead, they are fed some pulpit pounders thoughts of how they view the Lord.
Perceive what manner of love the Father has given us, that we may be called children of God! And we are! Therefore, the world does not know us, for it did not know Him.
1 John 3: 1, Concordant New Testament
So, how is it that God sees me? How is it that God sees us? Knowing this truth could very well transcend the relationship all believers have with their creator. This truth is something I have come to realize through His own revelation to me. How is it that God can see me with anything more than the love which He is? This is the love of the Lord which I have experienced through my life. He loved me enough to create me in His image {Genesis 1:27}. He loved me enough to dispatch His own Son for me {John 3:16}. This is the love of God, and how it is that He sees me. When God looks upon me, He sees his Son. The apostle Paul speaks to the truth of the indwelling Christ in us {Galatians 2:20}. This is who God sees when He looks upon me. The trouble for the believer is, this is NOT how we see ourselves. So, why would we look upon ourselves with anything less than how God sees us? Well, the filter of the mainstream church all too often gets in our way. Again, we have been taught to believe in a God who not only plays favorites, but who goes against His own love nature. Dare I say that the God of the mainstream church is not the indwelling God in us. It is an immense gift when He reveals to the believer just who He sees when He looks upon us. He does not see a reformed sinner, but a loved child.
According as He chooses us in Him before the disruption of the world, we to be holy and flawless in His sight, in love designating us beforehand for the place of a son for Him through Christ Jesus; in accord with the delight of His will.
Ephesians 1: 4-5, Concordant New Testament
~Scott~
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