I have to tell you that my Greek 3 class is absolutely eating my lunch. I feel like I'm back in Algebra like College Algebra where no matter what I did, my brain just rejected it and I got a grade not too long ago that just depressed me so much. I was just not very happy with myself. I had to have a pity party for a little while and here's why: because that was my best. That was my best effort! Then I just remembered that my grades don't define me. Let's phrase it this way and be a little more honest, my failures do not define me. I want to remind you that is not God's grading scale because God's grading scale really does not have anything to do with what the world would call success. His approval of you does not have anything to do with what the world would call failure.

Have you ever heard of the Hall of Faith? It's Hebrews Chapter 11 and essentially, it is about 39 verses of the author of Hebrews listing names and talking about why they're righteous. But listen to some of these names: Noah, Abraham, Gideon, Barak, and Samson! 

Here why this passage is shocking: Abraham passed off his wife as his sister, Sarah was abusive towards Hagar, Gideon was a coward and had a massive temper, and Samson was a total train wreck! In fact, I'm going to say that every name listed in the Hall of Faith comes with a track record of deep failure. How about Moses who killed a man with his bare hands and then hid the body? So why are they included in the Hall of Faith? It is because when you read about them in the Hall of Faith, you are reading this list of people that God has declared righteous. God doesn't grade them by their worldly successes or failures. The grading scale He uses is faith. Jesus said all it takes is a mustard seed of faith (Matthew 17:20) and you are declared righteous. Jesus trades your track record of failure for his blameless record of perfection.