What does God say about me?
God speaks about you in two voices, and the second only makes sense once you have heard the first: what He says about man as He finds him, and what He says about anyone joined to His Son. Commentators keep both, and refuse to blur them.
His Verdict on What I Am by Nature
Romans 3 gathers a chain of Old Testament quotations into a single finding about the whole human race. One writer treats it as evidence to be read slowly, precisely because it contradicts what people prefer to hear about themselves.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe whole human race is proved to be negatively and positively bad; nothing good and everything bad is in man. Read carefully these positive statements. We need to be reminded of them in a day when almost universally the truth of man's lost condition is disbelieved, and when religious teachers constantly speak of "a better self," "a divine spark," "the germ of good."… So read what God says about the condition of His fallen creature. "None is righteous, no, not one"; "no one understands; no one seeks for God"; "no one does good, not even one." How definite these statements are. And it is a blessed thing to read in the Scriptures that God knows all the depths of sin into which we have been plunged.
He Knows Me Completely
Psalm 139 says God has already examined you in full. A writer applies this to the ordinary experience of being sifted — and notes where the psalm lands.
The Bible Treasury"O LORD, you have searched me and known me: you winnow my path." And what is the reply of the soul to all the sifting it has consciously passed through? "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!"… Let this precious thought comfort our hearts, that the Lord is sifting away much that we have cherished more than Himself, but only to bring out what He knows to be at the bottom of our hearts, for He by His Spirit has put it there — faith in Him, and love to Him.
He Loved Me Before I Was Anything Worth Loving
Romans 5 places the proof of God's love outside you entirely — in a death that happened while you were at your worst.
J. N. DarbyUngodly, and without strength — such was our state when the glorious work of God's love was accomplished for us. But this gives us the certainty that the purity and perfection of God's own work and nature were in it. It suits us, and has no motive for it in us except our ruined state. God's love, as of Himself alone, is its source and cause.
He Calls Me by Name
In John 10 the Shepherd does not address a flock in general. One commentator draws out how far that goes.
William KellyBut what tender care in the Shepherd! "He calls his own sheep by name." His love is in the fullest way personal. His interest is in each one personally, and He would have all to know it. What could show it more than His calling His own sheep by name? So the apostle wrote, for those who believe as well as for himself, "He loved me and gave himself for me."
Accepted — and Measured by Christ
Ephesians 1 says believers are taken into favour "in the Beloved." Commentators press the measure of it.
C. H. MackintoshAll believers, then, are accepted — perfectly and forever accepted — in the Beloved. God sees them in Christ and as Christ. He thinks of them as He thinks of Him; loves them as He loves Him.
This has a sharp edge for anyone hunting for self-worth. The value is real, but it is located somewhere specific.
Truth & TestimonyLet us refuse completely the common teaching today of "self-love," "self-esteem" and "self-worth." This is merely confidence in the flesh. "In the flesh" man is worthless: "those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:8). But "in Christ" you are of great value to God, for this is a position of absolute perfection.
He Calls Me His Child
The name God gives believers in 1 John 3:1 tells you less about them and more about Him.
Edward Dennett"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God" (1 John 3:1). So the very fact that we are children is the expression of the Father's heart. He desired to have His children for His own satisfaction and joy… We cannot dwell too much on this outflow of the heart of God — that our being children is simply a consequence of the Father's love. And when we consider along with this what we were, the state we were in, our complete alienation from God, the bitter hostility of our hearts towards Him, we shall in some measure enter into the meaning of John's cry, "See what kind of love!"
No Condemnation — Now
Romans 8:1 is not a promise about a future verdict. The timing is the point.
F. B. HoleIf it stated that in the day of judgment we believers should escape condemnation, that would be wonderful. What it does state, however, is that there is NOW no condemnation. The condemnation has been borne and exhausted as far as we are concerned, and we are now in the life of the risen Christ, and therefore as clear of condemnation as He is.
What He Intends to Make of Me
God's last word about you is not about your present state at all.
J. N. DarbyHave you ever thought of God's thought about you — that you are "to be conformed to the image of his Son"? "What we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him." This cannot fail.
Summary
- Verdict — God's first word about man is that nothing good is in him, and that assessment leaves no room for a "better self" or "divine spark."
- Love — His love was proved while you were still ungodly and without strength, so its source is in Him, not in anything found in you.
- Acceptance — Because you are "in the Beloved," Christ's own acceptance is the measure of yours; God thinks of you as He thinks of Him.
- Name — That acceptance is not a category but a person: the Shepherd calls His own sheep by name, and each believer can say, "He loved me and gave himself for me."
- Likeness — He calls you His child now, holds no condemnation over you now, and has settled that you will be conformed to the image of His Son — and this cannot fail.