There's Nothing Wrong with You
There's Nothing Wrong with You
It may seem like a radical statement, but in Christ Jesus, there’s nothing wrong with you.
Here’s a radical statement: there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re a creature. You’re a baptized child of God. You’re exactly who you’re supposed to be, regardless of what you or anybody else may say. Whatever is in the past is in the past. Who you are today is complete. Tomorrow is out of your control, so why worry about it? God willing, you will wake up tomorrow without much effort. Your physical, mental, and emotional condition will propel you forward one step at a time. God will give you Christian brothers and sisters, friends and family, and neighbors to help you. So while it may be a radical thing to admit, there’s nothing wrong with you.
God will give you the strength to stand up, or he will send others to help you stand. Whatever you can’t do for yourself, God will provide the means to get you through it. There will be some situations where you show up, and you still won’t win. There are just some things you can’t control, no matter how well you prepare. You will lose the fight. You will cave under the pressure. You will do things that embarrass you that you never imagined you’d ever do. In those moments, it’s easy to judge yourself. Others will step forward to judge you too. There will always be someone in the next second, the next hour, and the next day that causes you to ask, “What’s wrong with me?”
That’s why it’s such a radical thing to admit that there’s nothing wrong with you. There’s always a finger pointed at you, to judge you. There’s your heart that accuses. There are your Christian brothers and sisters looking down their noses at you. There are friends and family, and neighbors who will rise up to praise and curse, absolve and condemn, demand and ignore you. They’ll tell you you’re too hot or cold, too large or too small, walking the right or wrong path. It’s a grind that grinds you down one minute, one hour, one day at a time.
The inner battles and external conflicts can lead to sleepless nights, self-medication, and interpersonal chaos. They can change you for the worse, little by little until the only thing you see when you stare at the mirror is someone who’s all wrong. You don’t see things in terms of what you’ve done right or wrong. Now, things usually go the wrong way because there’s something wrong with you. You don’t see wins and losses anymore. Now, even success is measured against the belief that you’re a loser. Instead of seeing yourself as a sinner who’s justified by God for Christ’s sake, you imagine yourself as a casualty of the war between God and Satan.
This is why God gives us his promises. It’s why he sends preachers of the gospel to deliver his gifts of forgiveness and eternal salvation. Rather than leaving us behind as a casualty of war, our Creator and Redeemer picks us up and carries us home. He imputes righteousness to us through words, water, bread, and wine. We’re reconciled to God through the blood of the Lamb, Jesus, our Savior. So as much as you’re tempted to declare that there’s so much that’s wrong with you, God declares there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re his own, and he will never leave or forsake you.
Who and what you are today, or tomorrow, is completely and simply summed up by two questions. First, “Do you believe you are a sinner?” Answer: “Yes, I believe it. I am a sinner.” Second, “Do you hope to be saved?” “Yes, that is my hope because of Jesus Christ, who I trust.”
It may seem like a radical statement, but in Christ Jesus, there’s nothing wrong with you.
That’s why the Apostle Paul can confess, “But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me (1 Cor. 4:3-4).
“So then, what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
‘For your sake, we are being killed all day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered’
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:31-39).
