Joel Littlefield

“Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Think about what makes you blessed. Are you happy if you have your basic necessities met or does it take much more than that? For some, happiness is wrapped up in possessions and success. For others, only the right relationships will do the trick. And though we know these to be a shallow means for happiness it remains a daily fight.  But the Bible gives us the ultimate reason for happiness. It has less to do with what we own, or how successful and accomplished we are, and far more to do with something we will absolutely never get.

If your faith is in Jesus then your sins will never be held against you.

Jesus became sin at the cross. Not in some hypothetical sense, but literally, He became my sin and your sin. The fullness of God in bodily form became the fullness of sins and transgressions, and for a moment in time the perfect Son from the Father was condemned. The sins of His people were counted against Him and the account of His perfectly obedient life was imputed to his people.

Imputed to me? But I know how horrible I can be daily. I know that I mess up, how I get impatient with my kids, how I get unjustifiably angry and lack humility.

The imputed righteousness of Christ means that even with all our remaining daily sins and struggles we will never be condemned. Our sins are not held against us because they were already held against Christ.

Magnifying the one who absorbed the wrath for your sins.

This is deeply spiritual and practical at the same time. As our inner man becomes strengthened by that grace that is in Jesus our actions are transformed. Christ-likeness is a theological certainty for the believer. Though we are daily being sanctified, and will one day be fully glorified, we are at this very moment fully justified. The happiness of a sinner who knows he is justified in Christ is far deeper than one who is successful in life but remains condemned by God.

Most likely this day did not begin perfectly. Chances are that by the end of this day there will be a list of wrongs you have done and thoughts you should never have thought. But if the gospel is true, and you have believed the gospel, then not one of those wrongs will cause God to turn His face from you. Not one of them will make him love you less. No amount of failure can ever void out the transaction Jesus paid for you in His own blood. And because of this you are blessed.

If you’ve somehow stumbled across my blog and you are not a Christian today, consider this. The man, Jesus, died on a cross just over 2000 years ago. We can all agree that His death was horrific to say the least. We can probably all agree that on any day that an innocent man dies it’s not a happy day. But this day was different. The horrifying manner in which Christ died, the sins for which He died, the shame He faced, the wrath He absorbed for many is the very reason the Christian can claim incomprehensible and untouchable joy. Only the death of Jesus was payment enough. So if you’re in search of true happiness but have never come to Jesus, then not only will maintaining happiness be a struggle, it will be impossible. Why? Because without Christ, no matter how much you try, all your sins are held against you. But it doesn’t have to remain this way.

Seek peace in Jesus alone.

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” – Romans 5:1-5