Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1-2)
One of the hardest things to understand as a Christian is the idea of grace. And it is so simple that it is hard to grasp. After all, some of the simplest things are the hardest to really understand.
Grace is divine strength and acceptance. We are not saved by what we do, we are saved by who we are.
I love my children. When they were young, they were not perfect, yet I still loved them. Even though they disobeyed me repeatedly at times, I still considered them to be my children and let them keep my name and live in my house. They were, after all, my children.
If we have given our hearts to God, accepted Jesus as our savior, we are saved. He makes us perfect.
And there is no condemnation. If we feel condemned the Bible tells us not to worry about it. Whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything (1 John 3:20-21). It doesn’t matter whether or not we feel worthy or saved or anything else. He loves us and we are his children.
We do stupid things. We look at stuff on the computer we shouldn’t, we drink too much, we have all kinds of problems – but we are his children. We are not saved nor lost by what we do. we are saved or lost by who we are.
After all, Romans 3 says all sin and fall short of the glory of God. In other words everybody has failed and no one is worthy of salvation. God gives it to us.
But we do things that are wrong. He still saves us.
We do what we do in this system because he loves us, not in order to make him love us. We already gave our hearts to him and he made us perfect.
But we can’t be perfect. We are too stupid.
True, except that God makes us perfect.
There are illogical things by the bucketfuls in the kingdom of God. But that is how God made it. If we could figure it out, it wouldn’t be of God.
We are sinful beings yet we are perfect. We are lost yet we are saved. We can’t do anything right but God saves us anyway.
That is grace. And that is us in the kingdom.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
3 comments:
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We are saved not by who we are but by Who HE IS and what HE did on the Cross.
ReplyDeleteIn one way, yes. But he is always Lord and we are not always his. It is only when we become who we are, in other words his, and accept what he did on the cross that the fact of who he is makes any difference in our lives. We can be lost and he will still be who he is, but that will not save us.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of part of a song put out by Casting Crowns:
ReplyDeleteNot because of who I am.
But because of what you've done.
Not because of what I've done.
But because of who you are.
Chorus:
I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow.
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord you catch me when I'm falling,
And you told me who I am.
I am yours.
I am yours.
It's all because we are His.
-Ella C.