How God Sees Us

Balak was the leader of the people of Moab, an enemy of Israel. When he saw Moses leading the multitudes of Israel to the Promised Land he called up the prophet Balaam to call down a curse upon the Israelites. This never happened. God would only allow Balaam to bless Israel, not curse them. What God moved Balaam to see is a picture of how God sees us in Christ.

In one of the visions God gives to the prophet, the LORD has him say something shocking:

When you read something like this, it makes you want to go back a reread everything from Exodus 1:1 until Numbers 23:20! Because when you read what Balaam says, it makes you think you missed something. Because Israel was doing all kinds of evil from making a golden calf to murmuring against Moses, to wishing they were back in Egypt, to questioning Moses’ leadership and hating manna! Iniquity was synonymous with Israel. But that was family business. That was between them and God. None of that was any of Balak’s business.

When God told Balaam to say he beheld no iniquity in Jacob, that’s exactly what He meant. When the LORD looked upon the people of Israel, He saw not their righteousness; He saw the righteousness of His Son. Were there sins God had to deal with? Yes. But their standing before God was not based on their righteousness; it was based on His righteousness.

If we’re honest with ourselves, we know that even on our best day, we don’t measure up to God in the least. But when God looks at us as believers in Christ, he does not see our righteousness. He sees the righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ. All of us have our struggles. We fail often. It does not change how God sees us. We could die on our worst day ever and we can still enter Heaven with our heads held high. Maybe you’re a believer struggling with alcohol and you fall into a drinking binge and die from all your drinking. (Forgive me for being so blunt.) Maybe you fall back into your drug habit and die from an overdose. Maybe you give in to your lust and God decides to take you home. You’ve passed into Heaven on your worst possible day ever. You still get to walk into Heaven with your head held high and enter boldly into God’s presence because you’re not there on your merits. You’re there on the merits of Christ and robed in His righteousness. That knowledge is not an excuse to sin, but it’s also not an excuse to wallow in our failures either. Good days or bad, our standing before God in Christ is sure. We stand tall in His righteousness! That is how God sees us.