He No Longer Holds You To That Standard

Length: 7 Minutes

Many years ago, I started learning about how forgiven and righteous I was through Jesus. It was an amazing revelation. I finally felt clean and presentable before the Lord. Whenever I did something wrong, I would remember how righteous the Lord had made me. While that was an unspeakable consolation to me, something was missing, and I didn’t know what it was.

At the time, my mentality was, “No matter how many times I fail God’s standard, He still loves me and I’m still righteous through Jesus.” The part about God loving me and being righteous was amazing, but it still bothered me how frequently I was “failing God’s standard” …or so I thought.

I figured God had certain expectations for my life, but even when I fell below those expectations, I was still righteous. I was certainly happy about this, but if you can understand, I sort of felt like a righteous failure.“I’m righteous, but I’m failing His standard constantly. I’m righteous, but I keep missing the bar He wants me to reach in my life. I’m righteous, but I’d also like to meet God’s expectations for once! That is, until I realized the truth about God’s expectations.

It’s true that I was justified through Jesus, but the part about me failing His standard simply was not.

Sin is, of course, unprofitable and not the will of God. But sin (in our actions, thoughts, or speech) is not a failure of God standard. How can this be? Because God has changed the standard for us in this New Testament. This may be contrary to what you’ve heard, but stay with me.

In the Old Testament, the law was, “Honor your father and mother, don’t covet, don’t bear false witness, etc.” – everything to do with your actions and desires. Now we live in a New Testament, with a new High Priest, with better promises, and for those who don’t know, a brand-new law. Yep, there’s a new standard in town.

Hebrews 7:12 (NKJV) For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.

You need to understand our “Obedience of Faith” material for any of this to make sense, but in the New Testament, the new standard is called just that: “the obedience of faith.” That means that the only thing God is requiring from people is to believe what Jesus has done for them. In the Old Testament, it was about what you could do for God. In the New Testament, the actual standard, is to merely believe what Jesus has done for you!

Romans 16:26 (ASV) …according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith:

John 6:29 (NKJV) Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

In this new covenant, there’s a new standard, and that standard is to merely see what Jesus has done! Right there. That is the piece of the puzzle I was missing. 

I thought that God had certain expectations for me to live out, and despite my failure to these expectations, I was still righteous. But that is not a truthful perspective. God never had those expectations of me. It’s true that I was righteous, despite anything I did wrong, but I didn’t realize that God had no expectations of me to change those wrongs myself. I wasn’t failing His expectations, because He didn’t have those expectations to begin with. 

Trust me, I was doing things wrong repeatedly, but I wasn’t failing God standard. You can’t fail a standard that God doesn’t have. God had no expectations of me to fix my life. He had no expectations of me to rectify my wrongs. He just wanted me to renew my mind to who Jesus was, and that would transform me all by itself (Romans 12:2). But if we need to transform ourselves, then what is the point of renewing our mind?

I’m not saying that wrong is not wrong. I’m not saying that sin is not sin. I’m simply saying that God no longer expects us to rectify those things ourselves. The standard of God, in this covenant, has changed. We’re no longer under a heavy law of works, but a light law of faith (Romans 3:27). That means that sin, while it is wrong and unprofitable, is not a failure of God’s standard. It’s not a transgression of law, because God has no law, in the New Testament, making sin illegal. The only thing that is illegal in the New Testament Is unbelief.This is why Paul says this about our actions:

1 Corinthians 6:12 (NKJV) All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

How can Paul say that all actions are lawful? How can it be that God’s only law is to behold His Son!? Because, if we perform that one standard, it will transform us all by itself (2 Corinthians 3:18). The reason that we turn away from sin is not because it’s illegal, but because the Holy Spirit compels us, as we learn Jesus! If you’re constantly beholding Jesus, you cannot help but be changed from glory to glory. It is impossible. 

God has redeemed us from the law and the works thereof (Galatians 4:5). God has redeemed us from the standard that was too high for us. God has saved us from the expectation that was too great (Acts 15:10). Now, He has changed the standard to something He calls the “easy and light yoke,” which is merely learning from Him.

Matthew 11:28-30 (NKJV) Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me… For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

After learning these things, I still felt righteous apart from my works, but I also didn’t feel like a failure anymore because I realized that, while I would do things wrong, I wasn’t failing God’s standard. His standard was faith. His standard was for me to learn Jesus. That I could do! All believers, by definition, believe! And that is the standard of God, to believe in His Son. I’m not saying that we don’t have to grow in that belief. I’m not saying that we don’t have to grow in our knowledge of Jesus. We certainly do, but every believer has already started that process, and that knowledge process is all God wants from us! 

Continue to learn! Continue to press into the knowledge of Jesus! Don’t stop! Do so with all the fervor of your heart, mind, and soul! Give up anything that stands in your way! The works that you were trying to do before will be accomplished effortlessly through you, when you take this one yoke upon you!

I assumed that every time I did something wrong, I was failing God’s expectations, but God’s expectations were different than what I thought. It was easier and lighter. God wasn’t holding me accountable to change myself for Him. He wanted to transform my life for me, as I merely looked at the wonderful work He did in His Son. And it truly is as simple as that.

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