Already Accepted

As some of you may remember, several days ago when I posted about the Desiring God conference weekend, I mentioned that I would post more things that I learned from the conference...

... and I haven't forgotten! This afternoon I was able to re-listen to one of my favorite sermons from the conference and type out notes from it. And oh,  was it ever a blessing for me to do that! I need these reminders of the gospel ~ always. I'm so thankful for the freeing truth of the gospel and Christ's atoning work on the cross.

I'm not including all of the notes I took, but will share enough notes to give a taste of the highlights. If you would like to listen to the whole talk, which I would highly encourage you to do, you may click on the link below!

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Work and Rest given by R. W. Glenn

We should start each day, knowing we wake up accepted.

We tend to be resume builders. We believe that we need to build the right resume so we can be accepted. But we already have a perfect resume.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says:

 "For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."

He became sin for us, and Christ's righteousness is imputed from Him to us. Our sins are withdrawn from our account and Christ was punished for them. We are completely forgiven!
But what few people consider, is that even though our sins were accredited to His account, His perfect record of achievement (resume) is credited to us. His resume is yours, as His child! He paid off all your creditors. And we have no debt whatsoever.

Not only is our debt paid, but He takes the perfect life of Himself and places it into your account. Your account is full of all the righteousness you'll ever need in acceptance with God. You have the prefect resume!

You can't be more accepted by God, than you are at this very moment. No matter what you're in the middle of right now - no matter what sin you're caught in - because it's not about what you do but about what Christ has done.

Yet we still tend to live as though our acceptance with God relies on us.

The reason why people work so hard to be accepted by the culture is that deep down they believe they need to build a resume to be accepted by the Creator.
Failure to be accepted devastates you. The reason why you're willing to work yourself to death is to be accepted by people. Even laziness can reflect this same desire for acceptance.

Either way you are motivated by acceptance.

The reason this acceptance has become a "need" is that you're not resting in your acceptance with God. Because when you are convinced that you are accepted by God on the basis of Jesus' perfect resume, you don't need others peoples' acceptance. You don't need them, you love them. You're not enslaved by their opinions of you. You don't crave their acceptance. You don't feel the pressure to keep building your own resume. And that pressure, once relieved, actually enables you to relax.

My reason for my frantic schedule was because I was frantic in my relationship with God,  not resting in the finished work of Christ for me.

If I'm resting in Jesus' resume I would not need to be seen as exceptional.

If I'm resting in Jesus' resume, I don't have anything to prove.

If you want to see your obsessive busy-ness transformed into diligent work and relaxing leisure to the glory of God: Go to work on your resting! Hebrews 4:11 says:

"Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience."

~Hebrews 4:11

"We are not told to strive to work, we are told to strive to do something even more difficult. We are to strive to enter into rest. It's so easy to turn this life into a system of achievement instead of resting in Christ's achievement."

Here is the hard work: strive with all your might to keep the gospel front and center in your life. Remember that you already have a perfect resume. Make every effort to remember all that Christ is for you in the gospel. When you do that, you can relax! Because you won't constantly be trying to earn the acceptance of God and other people by your achievements. Your work in your home and church doesn't add to your resume. You can't add to a perfect resume. The only list of accomplishments your Heavenly Father sees for you is the list amassed by Christ. And He has said: It is Finished!

Here is the original sermon: {Work and Rest}.