Logically, perfection can never accept imperfection. Relying on Jesus guarantees our acceptance with God.

“And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight [pictured], and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying…” (Acts 9:11) … I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having fa righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith… (Philippians 3:8-9)”

Has your ceiling got dents in it from where your prayers have bounced off? All of us sometimes feel like we’re ‘just not getting through’.

In Acts 9 we see how Saul’s prayer was particularly noticed by God. When the Risen Lord Jesus Christ sends Ananias to Saul, He says, ‘Behold, he is praying!’ Its surprising that the Lord should mention this because Saul has prayed his whole life. Saul was a devout Jewish Pharisee. His whole life revolved around prayer, fasting, vigils, and more prayer and more fasting.

Saul was completely different to the average man, which is what the word ‘Pharisee’ means – ‘separate’. Saul was devoted to worshipping the God. He even tried to stamp out the worship of Jesus as God because he was so devoted to God. Yet, now he prays and God so notices his prayer, God says ‘Behold, he is praying!’ Here is the clearest statement that God heard Saul’s prayer. Why?

Why does the Lord, who has just accused Saul of persecuting Him, hear Saul’s prayer? The difference is that Saul has now met the Risen Jesus Christ. In his own words above, Saul describes how, now that he has met Jesus, everything he thought he was, everything he thought he had achieved, all his righteousness, was nothing but rubbish!

Saul used to approach God depending on his own righteousness. The basis for his acceptance by God was his performance. Like all religious people, he believed that if he performed well, or at least did his best, God would accept him. This very human mistake is universal. Even Christians who ought to know better, regularly fall into this kind of thinking. ‘God will hear my prayers today because I’ve had a pretty good week.’ ‘Aaargh, I can’t even pray today because I did this, I did that…’

When we think like this, we bring God down to our level because we unreasonably think that imperfection can approach The Perfect. By thinking our best deeds and best behaviour is acceptable to ‘The Perfect’ we are either assuming we are perfect, or, that ‘The Perfect’ isn’t perfect. Logically, perfection can never accept imperfection.

All this changed for Saul. After meeting Jesus, he no longer approached God on the basis of his performance but entirely on the basis of Jesus’ performance.

Jesus was Perfectly Righteous. This righteousness is given to those who have faith in Jesus. And this is the platform on which we confidently stand on, to be received by the Perfect God. This ‘righteousness from God’ means that we are perfectly acceptable to God.

More than that. This righteousness changes our identity. Whereas our identity used to be based on our performance, now, like Saul became Paul, we become ‘Christians’. This is our new identity.