No merit but God's merit

In a world where the message is often, “What have you done for me lately?” Jesus instead says, “It is finished.” Our attempts to prove our worthiness are finished. Our life-long ambitions towards personal merit are done. Our resumes are thrown out, our trophies are taken off the shelf, and our personal empires are all through.

Philippians 3:8 tells us that all of our personal righteousness is “skybalon”, which is a shockingly vulgar Greek word. So if all our personal righteousness is trash, where does that leave us? In a terrifyingly empty, but strangely free place, where we can live, and move, and have our being. We’re invited today to move unencumbered by our successes, and unhindered by our failures into the reality of “It is finished.” We’re freed from the obligation of performance, and freed to worship God as children already accepted, not as applicants hoping for acceptance.

Ask God to show you what you’re unnecessarily holding onto. How does it change your life if personal merit is truly off the table?


Philippians 3:8