Righteous by Faith
The Christian Path
How Does God See You?
“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” (Romans 4:3)
What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. (Romans 4:1–4)
The Bible teaches that when we place our faith in the finished work of Jesus, we are saved, and God now sees us as righteous through Christ. Salvation comes by faith alone—not by our works. There is nothing we could have done to earn it, nothing we must do to maintain it, and nothing we will ever do to deserve it. (Ephesians 2:8–9)
Yet this doesn’t mean that after stepping through the door of salvation, we suddenly take over the process. The same God who saved us is the One who continues the work within us. He is faithful to complete what He began. (Philippians 1:6)
But here is where it becomes difficult to grasp: when we fail and sin against God, we often feel as though He no longer sees us as righteous. Instead, the old voices rise quickly—voices from our past that labeled us as failures: parents, teachers, friends, or even those we loved most. Just as quickly, our flesh whispers reminders of every reason we were told we’d never measure up.
And worse yet, the enemy seizes the moment, speaking into our thoughts and insisting that after all God has done for us, we have failed Him again—and that He could never love someone as broken or “lost” as we feel.
This is precisely the enemy’s tactic: to push us back into dead works, to make us chase after God’s law in our own strength, and to convince us that obedience is the way to measure up. Our intentions may be sincere—we genuinely want to live a life that pleases God—but our attempts are powerless. They leave our walk with God unfruitful, heavy, and burdensome.
When we strive like this, we step into God’s place. We judge ourselves, condemn ourselves, and try to finish the very work that only God Himself began. Paul warned us of this in Galatians 3:3: “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”
The Bible calls us to die to ourselves—and that includes dying to the part of us that tries to earn its own righteousness. “Dying to self” is surrendering our own will, desires, and ego so we can follow God’s higher purpose. It means letting go of the belief that we can contribute to our own righteousness. (Luke 9:23)
Our role is simple: feed our spirit through prayer, meditation, and studying Scripture. As we turn away from the flesh and nourish the spirit, something begins to change within us. We naturally grow to detest what belongs to the flesh and gladly draw toward the things of God, including obedience and walking in His ways. (Galatians 5:16)
We often view God through a human lens. As humans, we struggle to look past our own failures—or the failures of others—because our vision is clouded by sin and shame. We tend to interpret our mistakes as reflections of who we are.
But God has no voids, no insecurities, and no fractured identity. Our failures do not surprise Him, nor do they diminish His love for us. He sees us as righteous in Christ. He hates our sin, yet He looks upon us as His unfinished work—shaped, refined, and continually formed in the hands of the Potter. (Isaiah 64:8)
He is like a surgeon, carefully removing the cancer from our soul while walking with us every step of the way.
Does this mean God looks past our sins?
Not at all. Sin feeds the flesh, stifling our spirit and hindering our relationship with God and the work He is doing within us. Sin is an offense because it places our trust in ourselves rather than in Him, denying our dependence on His grace and power.
Placing our faith in God means trusting fully in His work—both in our salvation and throughout eternity. God is the One who accomplishes everything, which is why His burden is light. (Matthew 11:30)
Our role is to deny the part of us that tries to return to works and the law to earn righteousness. God doesn’t need our help; He simply calls us to nourish our spirit with His Word, prayer, and truth—and to allow Him to produce the growth. (John 15:5)
This can be frustrating because God works according to His timing, not ours. Meanwhile, our flesh tries to act as god—judge, jury, and executioner—condemning us back into a life of striving and works.
But this is the freedom of the Gospel: the God who began the work is the God who sustains it—and the God who will finish it.
