By Dasha McDonald
This week, during my vocational meeting with the Capital Fellows leaders, I spiraled into my favorite existential crisis: What comes next? Being in your twenties is strange—full of possibility and the fear that I might single-handedly derail God’s plan for all of humanity. I’m slowly learning to sit with the discomfort of not knowing and trusting that His plan is both real and better than anything I could imagine.
At Life and Leadership this week, Pastor Rob and Pastor Ryan taught on Biblical justification. Legally speaking (as I am exploring vocational routes) justification exempts a defendant from liability, making their actions “not wrong.” Scripture takes this concept of being declared right by an authority figure even deeper. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (ESV). Jesus takes on our sins (single imputation) and gives us His righteousness (double imputation). The ultimate Judge justifies us, not by excusing our guilt, but by addressing it through Jesus’ sacrifice and crediting us with His righteousness. This doesn’t merely balance the scales; it transforms our standing before God and should transform our understanding of Him and ourselves.
This truth speaks to the position in which I find myself now. My fear of making the wrong decision can stem from a need for security and approval, or from a genuine desire to do what God wants. While the desire itself isn’t always inherently sinful, it can lead me to strive for control and obscure my trust in the Lord’s authority. In his book Assured by God, Sinclair Ferguson writes, “In the Bible the verb ‘justify’ means ‘to count righteous,’ not ‘to make righteous.’” Reflecting on imputed righteousness reminds me that I don’t need to strive for approval or earn His pleasure—I’m already pleasing to Him because of what Christ has done.
Though I’m called to live faithfully, my relationship with God isn’t based on my efforts. It’s secure because of His work, not mine. If God has justified me, loved me fully, and secured my eternity, I can trust Him with a grad school application, a first job, or a boy who makes prolonged eye contact with me (this is a joke).
This assurance frees me to live by grace, not paralyzed by the pressure to perfect myself. His plan is good—even when I don’t see it. His grace is enough, His righteousness covers me, and His plans are always good.
Dasha McDonald is a member of the Capital Fellows class of 2024-25. She is from Kansas City, MO and is a graduate of the University of St. Andrews. This year, she is working as an Ecclesial Fellow in the Missions ministry at McLean Presbyterian Church.
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About Capital Fellows. Capital Fellows is an advanced leadership and discipleship program for recent college graduates. Through graduate courses, a paid internship, one-on-one mentoring, and many leadership and community service opportunities, fellows develop and apply their gifts in real-world situations while learning to integrate a Christian worldview into all areas of life. Capital Fellows is a unique opportunity to live and work in the Washington DC area and to be an active member of a supportive community that seeks to serve the city with the love of Christ. It is also a unique opportunity to get hands-on experience in the workplace while deeply exploring God’s design for us as workers and contributors to human flourishing.
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