WHAT sinner in his sins could conceive such a thought as being “accepted in the Beloved;” as being it the favor of God even as Christ is as being loved in Christ, even a; Christ in Himself is loved of Hi; Father? The thought of getting to heaven someday, is the highest flight that the unconverted hear can make towards an idea of God’ grace. But God surrounds Hi; grace with glory, and it is to the glory of His grace that He ha; taken such as believe His Son into His favor in Christ.
“Accepted in the Beloved!” Thus does God speak of each and all of His children. There is not one who is not “accepted.” Yes, accepted, yet not in self, nor because of works of righteousness which we have done, but “in the Beloved;” in the Son of the Father’s love, Who, having finished the work which was given Him to do on earth, sits upon His right hand in glory. It is to the praise of God’s own grace that we are thus taken into His favor. It is to His praise that our sins are forgiven, that we are cleansed from our iniquities; but to be accepted in the Person of Christ in glory is grace deeper still.
The riches of God’s grace are such that the need of multitudes of sinners cannot exhaust them, and that the vilest of sinners may have forgiveness. The extent of God’s grace to us in our sins is to be measured only by the blood of His Son in its own infinite value, and by the infinite love which led to its being shed. To place our sins into our own scale, and then watch them drag it down, is unbelief and sorrow. Our sins are nowhere the moment we believe. He “washed us from our sins in His own blood.” They are gone: remembered no more!
And as the extent of God’s grace towards the sinner in his sins can only be understood by appreciation of the infinite worth of the blood of His Son, so the extent of His grace towards the believer can only be grasped by the realization of His taking us into His favor according to the measure of His acceptance of His Son.
Our state while in our sins is learned by God forsaking Christ, when He was made sin for us. Our state when we believe is learned by the favor with which God regards His Son, now at His right hand. What we are in ourselves is seen in a forsaken Christ upon the cross on earth; what we are in Him is seen in an accepted Christ upon the throne in glory.
Our realization of a fact does not affect the reality of the fact. Light exists, though the blind see it not. A grain of grit will close the eye against the most glorious of sights; neither can the eye open itself and look calmly upon the scene till the grit be gone. Unbelief closes the eye against the glory of God’s grace, to the pain and darkness of His people, and until unbelief be got out of the heart there will be no moral power to behold grace. If you are a believer, but still questioning your acceptance, listen to the word of God, “Accepted in the Beloved.” Let your heart dwell upon it. It is the glory of the Beloved One that fills the Father’s heart, and you enter the favor of God, as nothing at all in self, but as everything in Him.
This is the unalterable position occupied by the believer before God in Christ, and his solely because of what Christ is to God. There is another side of the truth which we need to keep before us, namely, our own personal acceptability. Being accepted in Christ, we should seek that “we may be accepted of Him” or “agreeable to Him”―we should earnestly desire to please Him. This can only be accomplished by obedience to the word of God. Soon we shall stand before Him, and then it will be His joy to welcome and reward everything in us which has been done in obedience to Himself and His God by us upon this earth. There is no prayer breathed in scripture that we may be accepted in the Beloved, for our acceptance is by grace a fact, but there are exhortations and appeals which call upon us most earnestly to endeavor to be acceptable to Him. And the more genuine the joy of the believer in his acceptance of God, the more truly will he seek to walk acceptably before God.
But our reader may be one who prefers the honor of the world or the folly of the hour before the favor of God! Consider this, that you stand either in the full favor of God, or under the wrath of God. There is no middle ground. God tolerates not for one moment neutrality regarding Christ. If not in Christ, you are out of Christ; if not for Him, against Him. If not accepted in Him the wrath of God abides on you. Heaven will eternally attest the love God has towards all who love His Son, and hell His wrath against all who love Him not. While Jesus still invites you, Come, trust Him; “Kiss the Son lest He be angry.”