If social media had 10 Commandments, “Thou shalt be perfect” would be number 1.
Thou shalt have the perfect body, the perfect job, the perfect spouse, the perfect children, and the perfect house. You must say the right things, follow the right people, and agree with the right politics OR you will not be accepted. You will be an outcast.
Sadly, this rejection happens frequently in the church as well. When it does, it’s a small leap to feel rejected by God. We believe that our looks, education, personalities, or our past prevents us from being used by God. We accept these lies and act accordingly, walking in shame when God has already given us victory, power, and purpose in Christ!
Israel’s Outcasts
Isaiah records two groups of people that felt like outcasts in his day: foreigners and eunuchs. Today’s equivalent would be non-“church people” and singles.
If you didn’t grow up in church and you don’t know the lingo, when to stand, when to sing, and where Ecclesiastes is in the Bible, you can quickly feel like you don’t belong.
As a single person in the church, you can feel shunned by the Sunday School classes for parents and ladies events geared towards married people. You start to believe the lie that if God hasn’t blessed you with a spouse and children that you are being punished.
Thankfully, God doesn’t see either group the way we humans often do.
Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely separate me from his people”;
and let not the eunuch say,
“Behold, I am a dry tree.”
For thus says the Lord:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
I will give in my house and within my walls
a monument and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.Isaiah 56:3-5 ESV
What a powerful promise! God looks at the foreigner and makes him family. God looks at the eunuch and gives him an everlasting name—one better than having offspring would have provided.
How is this possible?
Grace.
For years I had the mindset that God saved me by grace, but that I had to earn His favor through my good works. I was consumed with trying to be everything I thought everyone else wanted me to be. The ghost of perfection haunted me and made me feel like a failure.
Then I began to learn one live-giving truth.
God’s acceptance of us is based in His grace—period.
When I accepted God’s gift of salvation, my sin was exchanged for Christ’s righteousness. All of it. When God looks at me He doesn’t see an outcast. He sees the perfection of His beloved Son. I am accepted and loved by God because of Jesus’ work on the cross, not any work that I have done or ever will do.
Living under the guilt of things already forgiven is disregarding God's grace. Click To TweetLiving under the guilt of things already forgiven is disregarding God’s grace. Striving to earn His pleasure by doing good works is calling God a liar. To quote Jesus:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.
Matthew 22: 37-38
The 10 Commandments prove that following a list of do’s and don’ts is impossible. Rules cannot make us holy. Only Christ’s righteousness can make us holy. Trying to “do better,” “rededicating our lives to God” and all other similar mindsets only set us up for failure. The problem is continuing to focus on ourselves.
Putting our focus on Christ is the only way to walk in victory.
Will we still sin? Yes. But when we do, we do not roll about in it, convinced that we are worthless. We confess it—accepting His forgiveness and putting our focus back on Him. Our failures do not define us. We must accept Christ’s forgiveness and grow in thankfulness for His grace.
We are not defined by our failures, but by Christ's forgiveness. Click To TweetThe world, and even other Christians, may still consider you or me to be an outcast, but God calls us His own. If you haven’t received God’s gift of salvation, you can do so today. According to the God “who gathers the outcasts of Israel,” all are welcome to receive His grace.
Thank you for reading! If you would like to discuss these truths further, you can post a comment below, or take part in the Facebook Live video about this post happening at 10:00 a.m., Friday, July 1. Get a reminder by liking this page and clicking to receive notifications in your newsfeed.