The Power of Right Believing: 7 Keys to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Addiction (9 page)

M
y team received a very encouraging email from Ron, one of our key ministry partners. Ron shared how he had a dear friend named Tyler, whom he went to grade school and became best buddies with. Tyler was from a good Christian family, was great at sports, and was living the “American Dream.”

After college, however, Tyler started hanging out with the wrong crowd at work and developed a severe drug and drinking problem, which in turn led to a series of devastating mistakes. Within a twenty-four-month period, Tyler had lost everything he held dear in his life. Ashamed and miserable, Tyler dropped out of church and almost gave up on life, God, and grace. But God, in His grace, was still reaching out to Tyler (through Ron), as Ron related this story in his email:

One night, while jogging at a park and listening to a message by Pastor Prince, I felt God prompting me to send Tyler a text message. I felt that God wanted me to ask Tyler, “What does God see when He looks at you?”
So while running, I texted him exactly those words. After a long time, I received his text reply:

Tyler: “Are you serious?”

Ron: “Yes.”

Tyler: “Well… I’m sure it’s not good.”

Ron: “Jesus.”

Tyler: “What do you mean?”

Ron: “I mean, when God looks at you, He sees Jesus!”

Thirty minutes later, I got this message:

Tyler: “Thanks, man, you don’t know how badly I needed to hear that!”

Would it bless your heart to know that the text Ron sent Tyler is the very message God wants you to receive today? I believe that like Tyler, thousands upon thousands of believers go through life believing God’s love for them depends on their actions. So many honestly believe that God is ashamed of them because of their mistakes and failures. They have either not heard or have forgotten that Jesus didn’t only pay for our sins, but He also took all of our shame. Somewhere along the way, we have lost sight of how God’s grace abounds “much more” (Rom. 5:20). We have underestimated the measure of His grace!

What Do You Really Believe?

My friend Ron was listening to one of my messages about our righteous identity in Christ when he felt led by the Lord to send his buddy Tyler that thought-provoking question, “What does God see when He looks at you?” I think it’s a great question, and if you were to answer this question honestly today, it would reveal what you really believe in your heart about God.

Most people, when things are going well, believe that God is well pleased with their behavior and conduct. However, they believe all that changes when they fail and make mistakes. It could be losing their cool on the road, visiting a website they shouldn’t have, or saying hurtful words to someone they love. At that moment of failure, they believe when God looks at them, He sees nothing good. They believe He is angry and disappointed with them and wants to punish them for their failures.

What hope is there in the belief that when you do right, you are blessed, but when you fail, you are cursed? This was exactly how the old covenant of the law worked. The old covenant was an imperfect system. Notice how in the book of Hebrews, God Himself found fault with that covenant and sought to replace it: “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second… ‘Behold, the days are coming, says the L
ORD
, when I will make a new covenant…’ ” (Heb. 8:7–8).

Heard about the New Covenant of Grace?

My friend, I am here to announce to you that God has already made a new covenant. The new covenant that He instituted is the covenant of grace that you and I get to enjoy today. It’s a covenant in which He declares, “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Heb. 8:12). Hallelujah!

God can be merciful to all your unrighteousness and remember your sins no more because the payment for your sins has already been made in full upon the body of Jesus at the cross. Therefore, when God looks at you today, He doesn’t judge, esteem, and measure you according to your imperfections. He sees you in the Beloved—He sees you in Christ, and He sees the blood that has been shed for you by His dear Son.

When God looks at you today, He sees Jesus. Because of this, His thoughts toward you are thoughts of loving-kindness, forgiveness, blessings, and favor. Jesus paid an immensely heavy price on the cross so that you can live life completely accepted and unconditionally loved by God. Knowing and believing this will make all the difference in how you live your life—no matter what is staring you in the face.

But Pastor Prince, I don’t deserve this love from God!

You are absolutely right! If we go by what we deserve today, all of us (myself included) deserve to be punished for our sins. Do you know that the punishment for sin is not simply a slap on the wrist? This isn’t something we can sugarcoat—the wages of sin is death
(see Rom. 6:23). In other words, if you and I go by what we deserve, the punishment we deserve for our sins is death. And even then, our deaths can never pay adequately for our sins because our blood isn’t sinless blood. That’s why I like to remind people who desire to be justified by their own righteousness that it’s simply impossible. All of us owe a debt we can never pay.

The good news is that Jesus bore the death sentence on our behalf at the cross. Did He deserve to be crucified on the cross? Absolutely not! He chose the cross so that His sinless blood could cleanse us from all our sins. The cross stands—for all eternity—as a declaration of Jesus’ everlasting love for us. At the cross, Jesus was suspended between heaven and earth as the sacrifice for our sins. He bore every punishment that we deserved. He absorbed every penalty the law demanded for our sins.

Only Believe

Do you know why Jesus chose the cross? John 3:14–15 gives us the answer: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

He went to the cross so that whoever
believes
in Him can receive the gift of eternal life.

Whoever
believes
. That is all you need to do to step into the
inheritance that was purchased for you with the blood of the Son of God. Believe in HIM. Believe in Jesus. Believe in what He has done for you at the cross. Believe that all your sins have been imputed to Him and all His righteousness has been imputed to you. Believe in the divine exchange. Believe in His love. Believe that all your sins have been punished at the cross and that through Jesus you have received the gifts of righteousness and eternal life.

There is so much to glean from John 3:15. Look at that verse again. Tell me, who qualifies for salvation? The Word of God doesn’t say, “Whoever obeys Him perfectly.” It doesn’t say, “Whoever never fails again.” And it certainly doesn’t say, “Whoever keeps all His commandments.” It simply says, “Whoever
believes
in Him.” Whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. The only action needed on your part is to believe!

Pastor Prince, how can simply
believing
in Jesus make me righteous? There must be something more that I must
do
to earn and deserve God’s love for me.

Don’t write it off just because it sounds simple, and don’t underestimate the power of right believing. When you believe right—when you believe that you are made righteous through Jesus—you will end up producing the fruits of righteousness. The apostle Paul refers to “the fruits of righteousness” in Philippians 1:11, and he specifies that they are “by Jesus Christ.” When you set your eyes on Jesus and Jesus alone as the source of your righteousness and forgiveness, you will end up producing the fruits of righteousness, holiness, and moral character.

Indeed, the Bible tells us it is when we don’t see or have forgotten that we have been cleansed from our old sins that we end up
lacking in self-control, godliness, and brotherly love (see 2 Pet. 1:5–9). Can you see how when you believe right, you will end up living right? So make Jesus, His forgiveness, and His love the center of every part of your life!

Lifting Jesus Higher

Grammy Award–winning songwriter and renowned worship leader Israel Houghton is a dear friend of mine. After hearing my message at a conference about making Jesus the center of our lives, he told me that he was inspired to write the song “Jesus at the Center,” which he cowrote with Adam Ranney and Micah Massey. This song has become an anthem sung by Christians all around the world. Whenever I meet Israel, he jokes that he is seriously considering writing me a royalty check because every time he hears me preach about Jesus, he gets inspiration for a new song.

Well, Israel, if you are reading this, I ain’t seen nothing in my mailbox yet, my friend.

Of course, I’m just kidding! I am truly glad that more and more, the name of Jesus is lifted up all around the world. In fact, on one of my trips to Israel, I met Adam Ranney. He shared with me how my ministry had impacted him because Christ is always given center
place. All this really encourages me because more than two decades ago, I received a mandate from the Father to bring His Son back to the church.

It’s sad, but there are some churches where you’ll hear all about how you should conduct yourself, but you don’t hear the name of Jesus. You don’t hear about the cross, and you don’t hear about how you are made righteous in Christ. You don’t hear how God sees you in Christ today. That is why I am so excited and blessed to know that the glorious name of our Lord Jesus is being exalted and lifted up more and more all around the world. That’s what I live for!

People call me a grace preacher, and they are right. But above all else, my passion is just to be someone who points people to Jesus! I know that when the beauty, perfection, and love of Jesus are unveiled in people’s lives, their lives will be transformed, and they will never be the same again. Self-help books point you to what you must do. My messages and books are all about Jesus helping you—pointing you to Jesus and what He has done for you!

It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve failed. When you make Jesus the center of your life, God will cause His blessings, favor, and grace to flow into your situation. That addiction that you have been battling with will be no more. That heavy load of guilt and condemnation that you have been carrying around for years will be lifted off your shoulders. That eating disorder, that bitterness, and that paralyzing fear will all be consumed in the person of Jesus!

Shielded in Christ

When you begin to see what God sees, your life will never be the same again. I’ve said this before but it bears repeating: When you became a believer, God no longer saw you as you! When He looks at you today, He sees Jesus. You are now
in
Christ. When I teach this in my church, I like to illustrate it like this: I take an ordinary ballpoint pen, place it in the middle of my Bible, and close the Bible.

“Can you see the pen now?” I ask my congregation, holding up my Bible. No, they can’t. All they can see is the Bible. The pen is now completely hidden in and shielded within the pages of the Bible.

In the same way, the moment you accept Jesus, you are shielded in Christ. When God looks at you today, He doesn’t see you with all your flaws and imperfections. He only sees His darling Son, Jesus! His Word says, “to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6). That refers to you, my friend. By God’s abundant and lavish grace—His unmerited favor—you are accepted and approved in Jesus, the Beloved!

What this means is that God is no longer assessing and judging you based on your merits. It is no longer about what you have done or
not
done. His love for you is not contingent on your actions; it is contingent on Jesus. No matter what mistakes you have made, He sees you washed in the blood of His beloved Son.

Because you are in Christ, having a blessed future is not contingent on how much you strive to be perfect or how hard you work at changing yourself. It is contingent on the person of Jesus. It is not about whether
you
deserve to be blessed, favored, and victorious.
The question is, does
Jesus
deserve to be blessed, favored, and victorious?

The Bible proclaims, “as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). Does Jesus deserve to be blessed, favored, and victorious? Then so do you! This is what being in Christ Jesus means. It means that today, God assesses you and sees you based on the perfection of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ righteousness is your righteousness. In fact, the Bible explains that because Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us, we are now the righteousness of God in Christ (see 2 Cor. 5:21).

Your Righteousness Is a Gift

“Righteousness” is a legal term. It means to have right standing before God.
Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words
defines righteousness as “that gracious gift of God to men whereby all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are brought into right relationship with God.”
¹
In other words, your right standing before God is based upon Jesus’ right standing before God.

Today, you are as righteous as Jesus because your righteousness is from Him. He purchased it for you at the cross. When you received Him as your Lord and Savior, He took away all your unrighteousness once and for all and gave you
His
gift of righteousness. This righteousness is something that you can never obtain or achieve through your right doing; it can only be
received
by your right believing in Jesus.