No matter what scriptures I showed James – no matter what words of encouragement I shared with him concerning God’s grace and forgiveness, he stayed locked in a negative spiritual assessment of himself. He inappropriately applied Psalm 51:3 to himself, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me”. When he saw God in his mind’s eye he saw the Almighty judge looking down on him with total disdain and disappointment. James had self-incriminating doubts and a self-condemning spirit as he headed toward spiritual self-destruction! Satan was doing a number on him with his lies.

What should we do when we have a hypersensitive conscience that hangs onto every little negative thing and at the same time dismisses God’s grace that biblically washes away our sins as we walk (imperfectly) by faith? The negative opinion causes doubt of our forgiveness and our salvation. The answer is that we need to stop judging ourselves and start seeing ourselves the way God sees us. The apostle John writes, “In whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God” (I John 3:20-21). “Heart” in this text refers to our minds – how we think of ourselves. And if God sees us as His beautiful children then we need to believe God rather than our faulty hypersensitivity of our imperfections. Spurgeon aptly said about I John 3:20-21, “Sometimes our heart condemns us, but, in doing so, it gives a wrong verdict, and then we have the satisfaction of being able to take the case into a higher court, from God, who is greater than our heart and knows all things”. There is an old song entitled Praise the Lord with one stanza saying, “Now Satan is a liar, and he wants to make us think, that we are paupers, when he knows we are children of the king.”

Figuratively speaking: If you look at the reflection of your face on the calm waters of baptism do you see someone forgiven of the past and one who continues to be forgiven as you walk in the light? Or, do you see someone who is spiritually ugly with stains and sins? The most important question to answer is how does God see you. Scripture teaches us that God sees us as beautiful, sacred saints who belong to Him as His precious children.

Read Luke 7:36-50 and then listen to Beautiful by MercyMe.

Luke 7:36-50

When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”