I’m convinced most Christians don’t have a very good understanding of how God sees us.

I’m not surprised about this because it’s really hard to for us to comprehend. God sees us so differently from the way we see ourselves and the way others see us, that there’s really no comparison.

It’s like He and we are looking at two different people. And in a way that’s true because we can only see ourselves from our past experiences, but He has chosen to see us now as we will be in the future when we’re with Him forever. So let’s set aside how we see ourselves for a moment and take a look at five things the Bible says about how God sees us.

You Are His Child Forever

“Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13).

How many times have you heard someone say, “We’re all God’s children.” Do you realize that’s not a true statement? Only a born-again believers can legitimately call themselves children of God because one of the things that happens when we become born-again is that God actually adopts us as His own.

Galatians 4:4-7 says the way to our adoption into the family of God was opened with the death of Jesus. As soon as we were born again we received the adoption to sonship, and the Spirit of God’s Son came into our heart. So we are no longer slaves, but God’s children; and since we are his children, God has also made us His heirs. This is why Ephesians 1:13-14 tells us the Holy Spirit was given to us as a deposit that guarantees our inheritance. As heirs of God we have an inheritance that no one can take from us.

From 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 we learn that when we were born-again, God set His seal of ownership on us and put His Spirit in our heart guaranteeing what is to come. Since then it’s God Himself who makes us stand firm in Christ. Having freed us from the one who held us in slavery, He set His own seal of ownership on us. We are no longer slaves but sons and daughters of God. Having been bought at a price, the precious blood of Jesus, we belong to God now, and no one can ever change that.

He has placed us under the care of His Son, as the owner of a flock of sheep would place them under the care of a shepherd. It’s the Father’s will that the Son should lose none of those He’s been given, therefore everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life (John 6:37-40).

This is not something we accomplished through any personal effort of our own. It’s a work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that cannot be undone. Nothing in all of creation can change what they have done in us (Romans 8:38-39) and no one can ever take us out of their hands (John 10:27-30). Once we are born-again, we are God’s children forever.

You Still Sin, But He No Longer Counts Your Sins Against You

“Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit” (Psalm 32:1-2).

In Psalm 32:1-2 King David foresaw this and in Romans 7:15-24 Paul explained it. Having admitted that try as he might he just couldn’t completely stop sinning, he gave us God’s perspective on the matter. He said that when he sinned, it was no longer he himself who sinned, but the sin who lived within him.

Here’s what he meant. In Romans 7:9 Paul said, “Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.” He was talking about reaching the age when he became accountable for his sins. Before that happened he was not accountable and had eternal life. It’s not that he didn’t sin before then, but his sins were not counted against him. However, as soon as he was old enough to be accountable, the penalty for his sins was applied and he no longer had eternal life.

Now let’s look at two seemingly unrelated statements Jesus made about what it takes to enter God’s Kingdom. In Matt. 18:3 He said, “Unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”And in John 3:3 He said that no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born-again.

By putting these together with Paul’s comments on accountability we can see the Lord’s two statements really weren’t unrelated at all. Remember, Paul said little children have eternal life because their sins are not counted against them. Jesus said in order to enter the Kingdom we have to become like little children again. But He also said in order to enter the kingdom we have to be born again. Therefore, the way to become like little children so our sins are not counted against us is to be born-again.

The proof of this is when Paul was born-again God no longer counted his sins against him, but attributed them to the sin that still lived within him. He had become like a little child again, not accountable for his sins, and had regained eternal life even though he couldn’t prevent himself from sinning.

You Are Perfect In His Sight, As Righteous As He Is

“For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Hebrews 10:14).

In Romans 3:20-24 Paul explained that no one will be declared righteous by keeping the Law because the purpose of the Law was to make us conscious of our sinfulness. Therefore, God made known a righteousness from Him apart from the Law that comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, being justified freely by His grace.

From 2 Cor. 5:17 we learn that if anyone is in Christ he or she is nothing less than a new creation in Christ. “The old has gone, the new has come.” This is not something that will happen someday, or that we have to bring about ourselves by changing our behavior. It’s something that from God’s perspective has already happened and is irreversible. It happened because we are “in Christ” or born-again.

This is possible because when His Son, who was without sin, became sin for us, God was able to make us as righteous as He is (2 Corinthians 5:21). From His perspective we’ve become perfect forever because the Son’s one sacrifice for sin applies for all time, covering the entire lifetime of every believer (Hebrews 10:12-14).

When Jesus went to the cross He forgave us all our sins (Colossians 2:13-14). Those who had already died believing He would come to save them were in Paradise awaiting His atoning sacrifice. When Jesus died, their sins were forgiven retroactively. Other believers were alive at the time of His death and received the benefits of His sacrifice immediately. Still others would not be born for many years, meaning all their sins were in the distant future. Their sins would be forgiven as soon as they heard the gospel and believed it no matter how far in the future that happened.

So even though the Lord’s death took place on a single afternoon in time, it had to apply for all time, past, present, and future. It also had to apply for the entire lifetime of each believer. Otherwise the phrase “He forgave us all our sins” could not be true. But because it is true, God can now see us as if we always have been and always will be perfect.

This is how He can guarantee our inheritance from the time we believed (Ephesians 1:13-14), and how He can assume responsibility for making us stand firm in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). Having already paid the penalty in full for all the sins of our life, He is able to regard us as being righteous, as if we never sinned in the first place. From His perspective we are innocent, like the little child Jesus said we have to become.

You Cannot Be Condemned for Any Reason

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”(Romans 8:1).

Because of this, we can no longer be condemned for any reason. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17).

[Jesus said,] “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my words and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has passed over from death to life” (John 5:24).

None of the above has required anything of you except to believe that when Jesus went to the cross, He went for you. Everything was settled for you the moment you believed that.

When You Stand Before God You Will Be As Perfect As He Is

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).

At the moment of the Rapture we will be changed from mortal to immortal and what we are now by faith we will become in fact (1 Corinthians 15:51-53). All physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual imperfections will be gone forever. All desire to sin will be gone, as will the disappointment, shame, and guilt that accompanied it.

Our spirit will be in perfect alignment with God’s Spirit, our will in perfect harmony with His. The restrictions imposed on our abilities by the curse under which we’ve labored all our lives will be lifted as we emerge from the dark oppressive past into a bright and limitless future.

No matter what kind of sinners we have been here on Earth, or how often we stumbled and fell, or how disapprovingly we’ve been looked upon by our peers, when we stand before our Creator every hint of our earthly self will have disappeared and we will finally be the perfect example of ourselves He created us to be, fit to dwell in the presence of the Lord forever in the most luxurious environment He has ever designed.

What Should We Do About This?

As you can see, none of the above has come to us as a result of our behavior. As soon as we believed, it was accomplished in our lives as the free gift of God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8-9) and can never be reversed. We don’t know why God chose to make this act of His Grace such a polar opposite to His requirements of those who labored under the Law before us. And from reading prophecies that describe life on earth in the Millennium, we can see that once the Church is gone no other group of believers will ever enjoy such a lavish display of His love after us. The only explanation He gave was that through us He wanted to demonstrate the incomparable riches of His grace in ages yet to come (Ephesians 2:7).

But even though He placed no conditions on us other than to believe in the one He sent (John 6:28-29) I believe Paul was very clear in describing the appropriate response to such an overwhelming display of His kindness.

In this study we’ll conclude our survey of the letter from James, half brother of Jesus. The original Apostles named him overseer of the Church in Jerusalem, a position he held until his death in 62AD. James probably wrote his letter around 50 AD or even a little before.

The stoning of Stephen in 36 AD had led to the persecution and scattering of the young Church, which was still primarily made up of Jewish converts. This study will focus on chapter 5, the final chapter of his instructions to the scattered Church.

Warning to Rich Oppressors

“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.

Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you” (James 5:1-6).

Without any warning, James turned to unleash this tirade against the wealthy. In a few years the Romans would come, destroying everything in their path. The life style that the rich had come to enjoy, often by oppressing the poor, would be ripped away from them and they would be left with nothing.

From the language it’s reasonable to see this as a dual fulfillment prophecy, taking place both in the first century Roman conquest of Israel and in the end times where the Lord will hold the whole world accountable for things like this.

Patience in Suffering

“Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.

Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned” (James 5:7-12).

Just as quickly as he left, James turned back to his primary recipients, the scattered Church.            But everything he said to them is also good advice for our time. In many countries, the Christian  way of life has never been tolerated and believers there have always lived under the threat of persecution. In the US and some other western countries this has not been the case, and persecution for our faith has been largely unknown.

But lately we’ve seen growing signs that those days are rapidly coming to a close. American Christians are seeing increasing instances of persecution. Our influence on society is diminishing and our public voice is being stilled. Patience will be the order of the day, and the Lord promised to reward us for it.

[Jesus said,] “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth” (Rev. 3:10).

The Prayer of Faith

“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective

Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops” (James 5:13-17).

The Lord’s promise to heal His people first appears in Exodus 15:26 where it became one of the names by which He’s known, “Jehovah Rapha,” the Lord who heals you. This promise continues throughout the Old Testament. The Psalms, Proverbs, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Malachi contain numerous examples. Here are just a couple.

“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:2-3).

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5).

But this promise was not just for God’s people in the Old Testament. Jesus healed the sick. When He sent His disciples out to preach the gospel He told them to heal the sick (Luke 9:1-2). Later, He said whoever has faith in Him will do the things He did (John 14:12).

That includes healing the sick. Peter and Paul healed the sick and raised the dead. Paul said that the gift of healing has been distributed throughout the Church for the common good of the Body (1 Cor. 12:7).

Those who deny that the gift of healing exists in the Church today do so in the face of substantial evidence to the contrary, and without a single verse to support their position. Having never performed or perhaps even seen a miraculous healing, they’ve applied the reverse of 2 Cor. 5:7 and are living by sight instead of by faith.

Think about this for a moment. God has chosen us, the Church, to be His example of the incomparable riches of His grace in ages yet to come (Ephes. 2:7) bestowing on us every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). When Jesus came He demonstrated these gifts and empowered His disciples to demonstrate them as well.

He said anyone who has faith in Him would do the things He did. Would He then suddenly withdraw His gifts from us without telling us He was doing so, leaving us without the remedy for our infirmities that He died to give us?

It is true that not everyone who applies James 5:14-16 is healed. But in those cases the reasons don’t originate with God. He is the God who heals us. He sent His Son to die for us so we could be healed. Jesus never said the timing wasn’t right, or that it wasn’t God’s will for a person to be healed.

The only recorded time when Jesus was given the choice to heal someone or not is in Matt. 8:2-:.

“A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.”

Numbers 23:19 tells us God is not a man that he would lie, or the son of a man that he would change his mind. “Has He ever spoken and not done it, or promised and not fulfilled it?” Moses asked. And Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. We can’t blame God.

James reminded us that Elijah was just a human, like we are, and yet when he prayed that the rain would cease not a drop of water fell on Israel for 3 ½ years. Then he prayed for it to resume and it did. His point was if the prayers of an ordinary man of faith could keep the rain from falling on an entire nation surely they can heal us from our illnesses.

The problems with our not being healed have to originate on earth, not in heaven. Something, or someone, is impeding our prayers. Remember, the whole world is under the control of the evil one (1 John 5:19). A criminal knows what he does is against the law, but he does it anyway thinking he won’t get caught.

It’s up to the police to stop him. In the same way, what Satan and his minions do to us is against the law, but they do it anyway. It’s up to us to stop them, and the Bible shows us how. But we can’t do that if we’re somehow allowing them to do it or blaming God for the lack of results instead.

My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins (James 5:19-20).

Only someone who isn’t really saved can wander from the truth into the face of death. Paul taught that God takes ownership of all believers and puts His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come (2 Cor. 1:21-22). Jesus promised never to lose any of those the Father has given Him (John 6:39). He said no one can snatch any of us out of either His or His Father’s hands (John 10:27-30).

Therefore someone who wanders from the truth and needs to be saved from death didn’t really believe the truth in the first place. Turning such a person back requires helping them become truly saved. Only the blood of Jesus can save them from death and cover a multitude of sins.

In Conclusion

Of late, I’ve come across the opinion that James was writing to Jews who were still under the Law and therefore is not meant for the Church. They put forth several reasons for this, beginning with the way he addressed the letter, “To the 12 tribes scattered among the nations.”

But when James wrote his letter the Church still consisted predominately of converted Jews. And if he wrote it in 50 AD or before, the Council of Jerusalem which opened the doors of the Church to the Gentiles hadn’t taken place yet.

They say James advocated a “faith plus works” form of salvation, which they interpret as keeping the Law. But what he really said was that true faith will manifest itself in the performance of acts of kindness toward others. James never once advocated keeping the Law as a requirement for salvation.

They say he never mentioned accepting the shed blood of Jesus as payment for our sins as the way to salvation. But he was writing to people who were already saved, explaining how to live a Christian life. His focus was not on salvation but on sanctification.

There are even some who put James among the “Judaizers” who insisted that Gentiles wishing to follow Jesus had to be circumcised and put themselves under the Law. But they overlook the fact that it was James who, only a few years after he wrote this letter, ruled against the Judaizers in opening the door to the Gentiles without any such requirements (Acts 15:13-18).

I undertook this study to dispute these claims as being without merit. In doing so I’m siding with the generations of Christians who right from the earliest days of the Church saw the Letter from James as valuable instruction to the entire Church, worthy of inclusion in the New Testament.