Jesus said “come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.” Notice how he didn’t say “come to me once you have it all together, and I will give you rest.” No. He tells us to come as we are to him. For many it can be easy to think our inner mess must be sorted out before we can be reconciled to God.
No one warned me in my whole life about the depth of the imperfections that I would find within myself even while knowing Christ. Sure, I’ve been told and am well familiar with the truth that no one’s perfect, but I never knew just how imperfect I’d discover myself to be.
In some places I’ve seen a common mindset in the Christian realm that assumes we are a little more perfect than everyone else because of our relationship with God; or that we sin, but are incapable of committing the more serious sins of the mind. Even I for a time thought something along that line, and it resulted in me expecting that after knowing Christ for 2 years I would feel like a better person by now. Being the perfectionist I am, I’ve often found myself for months at a time trying to be a better person instead of just coming to Jesus. I wish someone would have explained to me in more depth that even believers in Christ don’t just enter into a state of perfect grace and Christ-likeness overnight, or even after 2 years of having God work in you.
The truth is no one is any less imperfect than anyone else. God’s word says all have sinned and fall short of His glory. I don’t intend for the acknowledgement of our imperfection to be discouraging in the slightest. Rather, I want to emphasize the greatness of the truth that through Jesus, we have righteousness imputed to us while we are undeserving of it.
God’s word also says that we who are in Christ are a new creation, no longer under the dominion of our sins. Nor are they held against us, because our forgiveness for all we’ve done and will do is paid for at the cross.
Jesus is the propitiation, the payment for all our sins, past present and future. He says “come, and I will give you rest.”
Referenced scripture-
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Romans 3:23-26
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28