Perfect!

Have you been watching the Olympics? There’s been so much to see: the entertainment of Usain Bolt, the resurgence of Michael Phelps, the whole story of Simone Biles. Most of us have tuned in live or online at some point over the last couple of weeks and statisticians believe that half the world’s population, 3.5 billion people, have watched at least a portion of this year’s Olympics.

In fact, Simone Biles' gold gymnast routine was viewed in some form by nearly 3 billion people. That’s 6 billion eyeballs on her, watching her every move! Consider that a gymnast doesn’t really score points, as much as their routine is graded in the negative…that is…judges deduct points with every slight flaw in the routine (they do get some credit for degree of difficulty). Each judge watches the gymnast waiting to detect a slight imperfection and pounce on the shortcoming with a mark of their pen. And while this was happening for Simone Biles in her final routine, 3 billion other people were all doing the same.

How would you like that kind of pressure?

And yet some think of God that way. Like he is sitting in heaven with a scorecard and deducting points from you with your every errant move. You’re hoping for some extra credit points for “degree of difficulty” here and there, but overall, you know he sees everything you are doing wrong, and you are sure the grade isn’t good. Maybe that has led some of you to just give up all together.

But did you know that when the Father watches you, he is actually scoring Jesus? Jesus was the faultless man who was our perfect substitute. If you are on Jesus’ team, you are scored based on what he did, and what he did alone. His routine was perfect. So being teamed up with Jesus, God declares you righteous, not because you are, but because He is.

He is watching your every move, but that’s to cheer you on, encourage you, to help you grow, and more than anything else, because he loves you. But you’ve already been scored based on the work of Jesus. The pressure is off.

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:21