Feeling Inadequate?

Life is challenging at the best of times. For most if not all of it, many feel inadequate. I feel inadequate. This has not always been. As a young person, I figured I could do anything and spent a lot of my life trying to prove it. After a while, I realized several areas in which I am insufficient.

For instance, I cannot sing on tune and I’m lousy with small talk, but the biggie is that I cannot be perfectly righteous. This is not for lack of effort, but several horrendous failures have brought me to understand my need of Jesus Christ and His righteousness. My own is insufficient. This morning’s devotional introduces that insufficiency in a couple of verses:

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Corinthians 2:14–16)

Who is sufficient for these things indeed! A victorious, sweet-smelling life can happen only through faith in Jesus Christ. He gives me what I need to bless others — and to convict others. On my own, I am completely and totally inadequate to do either.

The devotional writer makes three solid points concerning what is needed to be a child of God. As I read them, I agreed and even add that these are also needed to live a Christian life in victory. All three are from Jesus.

Perfect righteousness. In myself, this first one is totally impossible. Even the ‘good’ I do is tainted with selfishness, sometimes in my motive, sometimes in the celebration after it is done. Only by the incarnation and obedience of his Son can I be righteous. He perfectly obeyed the law of God as a man, establishing righteousness in the earth, the only righteousness My righteousness is filthy rags in the sight of a holy God and not at all acceptable. However, God accepts the righteousness of his Son. This perfect righteousness is imputed to every sinner who believes on Him, meaning I have the perfect righteousness of the God-man, my Savior Jesus Christ.

Death. The Bible says that “the wages of sin is death” and “the soul that sins must die.” If I paid that penalty, then what? But God, in great mercy provided that death for me in the sin-atoning death of his Son. Jesus died as my Substitute, bearing my sin in His own body. God put me “in Him” so that I died with Him.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

I am not adequate. I could not pay my own penalty. Unless Jesus died for me, I would perish.

Faith. Some might say they are saved because of their faith in Jesus. “My faith” is insufficient. How often I fail to trust Him, even for the smallest things. I cannot muster faith when it is needed. However, God says:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9)

My faith is inadequate, but that faith is not what saves; it is this faith that God gives as a gift. In some passages, He calls it “the faith of Christ.” I can rest my life on Him because He granted to me this amazing gift. It came to me by hearing His Word, not a general hearing of what the Bible says, but a specific hearing Him speaking to me, Him calling me into His forever family. This faith is adequate because it is from God and not something I can do or drum up apart from Him.

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Oh Jesus, I am so aware of my inadequacies, but at the same time You make me increasingly aware of Your perfections. Because God has blessed me and united me to You, I have all that I need and more. I can ‘smell good’ to those on the way to their own salvation. I can bring deep conviction of sin to the nostrils of those who reject You. This is not my own doing — I am totally inadequate — it is what You do by grace in the lives of Your people. What a privilege to know and love You, to be given Your righteousness, to experience that death that gives me Your life, and to be given the amazing grace to believe it all. Oh, how I love You — because You first loved me.