March 7: What Does God See?

This post is part of a 40-Day Prayer Journey through the season of Lent. Click here to learn more and read other posts in the series.

“If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

In his commentary on 2 Corinthians in The People’s Bible® series, Professor David Valleskey wrote this about the verse above:

The one who is in Christ is the person who by faith has made the death and resurrection of Christ his or her own. God no longer sees the old, pre-Christ person. That, says Paul, “has gone,” and a new person “has come.” The word translated “has come” has in it the idea of something that started in the past and continues into the present. One who is “in Christ” has become, is, and continues to be a new creation in the eyes of God. Imagine the joy in Paul’s heart as he penned these words! Think of what he had been in the past. He reminds Timothy, “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man” (1 Timothy 1:13). But now, because “one died for all,” he can confidently say, “The old has gone.” In its place is a “new creation,” whom God no longer looks upon as a guilty sinner. (p. 90)

That joy is yours and mine as well, dear Christian.

When God looks at us, he doesn’t see our past transgressions. He doesn’t see our failings, our flaws, our shortcomings. He doesn’t look at our sinful, shameful secrets—the things we’ve done but wish we hadn’t. He doesn’t view us as his hated enemies who wanted nothing to do with him.

He doesn’t see sinners. He sees his Son.

God sees you and me as ones who have been buried with Christ in his death—now dead to sin and freed from its hold on us—and raised to life again as children of God and coheirs of eternal life.

Now, are you and I still sinful? Of course. We struggle against our sinful nature every day. Daily, we are urged to throw off our sinful natures and desires.

How?

By being immersed in the means of grace—God’s Word and sacraments—where we learn what our God has done for us, where we’re strengthened and encouraged in the forgiveness of sins won for us by Jesus, and where we’re called to live as God’s children in this sin-darkened world.

Your past does not define you. The old has gone. Through Spirit-worked faith in your heart, the new has come. You are a new creation in Jesus.

Today as you pray, ask that God would continue to create new hearts made alive in Christ through his Word and sacraments. Ask that God would continue to comfort and restore his people with his promises as we stand rooted in the forgiveness won for us by Jesus. Ask God for strength to live for him as new creations and for opportunities to encourage fellow believers to do the same.

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