In Christ, God does not observe iniquity in you!

Believers, do you remember the story of Balak and Balaam and how the former hired the latter to curse the children of Israel? Balaam tried to curse them from three different locations but ended up blessing them according to God’s will instead. Check out part of what the Lord caused this professional hexer to say at his second prophecy-

20 Behold, I have received a command to bless;

He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

21 “He has not observed iniquity in Jacob,

Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel.

The LORD his God is with him,

And the shout of a King is among them.

God did not observe iniquity in Jacob nor did He see wickedness in Israel. But wait a minute. Look what Moses told the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 9:6-7 after Balaam failed in his bid to curse them and as they were about to cross the River Jordan into the Promised Land –

“6Therefore understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of yo r righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. 7Remember! Do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.”

The children of Israel were rebellious and stiff-necked throughout their journey in the wilderness, including their time in Moab when Balaam tried to curse them, yet the Lord did not observe iniquity or see wickedness in them! This is a shadow of our life in Christ today! God sees us as righteous apart from works because His Son and our Saviour Jesus shed His blood to save us. In Christ, we are made righteous by His obedience, and not ours from our filthy rags righteousnesses from keeping the Law.

Believers, if the blood of bulls and goats offered continually year by year could cause our Heavenly Father not to observe iniquity in Jacob, how much more us believers in Christ today that have been cleansed once for all (one-time payment!) by the blood of His Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ?! See Hebrews 10. How much more we who have been blessed with abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness through our Saviour Jesus Christ! See Romans 5:17.

Believers, our being free of the curse and entering our promised land (for us today, rest in Christ) has got nothing to do with our own righteousness or the good or bad things we do. It is not earned; much like the children of Israel did not enter their own promised land because of their own righteousness as recorded by Moses in Deuteronomy 9:6 above. We enter Christ’s rest because God loved us so much that He gave His Son to die for us. He took our place on the cross and made us righteous. As the righteousness of God in Christ, we are free from every curse, generational or otherwise, as it is written in Galatians 3:13 “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us…”

Believers in Christ, we are not under law but under grace. In Christ, the Lord has blessed you and no one can reverse it. Like the stiff-necked and rebellious children of Israel whom Balaam could not curse, God does not observe iniquity in you, even when you sin and mess things up, because our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has satisfied His fiery anger and judgment that should fall on you.

But does it mean that it is okay to be stiff-necked and rebellious because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? Certainly not! God hates sin – stealing, murder, budget padding, running a red light, lying about how you are almost at work when you haven’t even left the house, not loving your neighbor as yourself (which no one can do on their own), all sin. God is against all these things. He sees the damage and death that sin brings to His beloved children so He sent His Son to save us from these things. See Matthew 1:21-

"And she will have a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

If we could save ourselves from our sins, Jesus would not have needed to come and save us. The reason that we are not committing certain sins is because we have not been tempted beyond what we can bear in those areas. If a big enough trial comes, even unbreakable Titanium has its own Oga that will grind it to powder. There is nothing like "I can never do something like that because I am strong and moral" in the life of anybody. The arm of flesh will fail.

Being in Christ is not deciding to be good by human effort. It is being transformed to the image of the Lord’s glory, from glory to glory , by the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18

Remember Isaiah 64:6 – ‘But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;…” Imagine the unclean thing here as a maggot-infested pot with a dead rat in it (sin nature inherited from Adam), with the maggots crawling all over the outside of the pot (sin manifested). What our Saviour does is wash our insides clean and continuously fill us to overflowing with the water of the Word of faith (not the law), all through no effort of ours but through His Spirit that dwells in us.

Once the heart is believing right, your actions and behaviour will line up with the Spirit within. The maggots outside the pot (sin manifested) will vanish with none crawling out to replace them because the inside is pure! Not only will you Live Right and not continue in sin, you will do exploits and be a blessing to others too "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." - Philippians 2:13. ALL OF THESE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH OUR EFFORTS.

With God's gift of righteousness to us in Christ comes no condemnation. It is Christ's "Neither do I condemn you" that makes us "go and sin no more."

Believe Right and you will Live Right.