You Don't Pay For A Gift Given To You

Your grandparents come by for a visit. During their visit they present you with a beautiful gift. You are moved by their love for you and put great value on this wonderful thing they have done for you. Imagine now that you turn around and offer them money for their gift. How do you think that would make them feel? Would it not cheapen their gift of love? Could you even imagine doing this? It is what we do with Father almost every day.

Salvation is a gift. It is a gift of grace offered to us, the enemy of Yahweh. Even though we were in rebellion against his authority, he reached out in a great act of love and offered us an escape from the power of sin and forgiveness for all of our offenses including any future ones. As his enemy, we have deserved none of it, yet in grace he offered it.

This is fantastic but then we cheapen it in our attitude in accepting it. We don't seem to believe it as we continue to cry out for forgiveness, as we try to atone for our sins, as we try to bribe Father with our goodness. We confuse the fruit of righteousness with the price of salvation. There is no price for salvation because Jesus paid it for us.

Paul the apostle, the great teacher of this grace, used Abraham as an example. In fact, Paul refers to Abraham as the father of our faith because he is the first to have lived such faith:

So what are we going to say? Are we going to find that Abraham is our ancestor on the basis of genealogy? Because if Abraham was made righteous because of his actions, he would have had a reason to brag, but not in front of God. What does the scripture say?Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. (Romans 4:1-3)

It was credited to him. The simple fact is that Jesus saved you because there is nothing you could do to save yourself. Nothing. All of your sin has been covered, even the future stuff. That is hard for us to grasp but it is the reality of our salvation. It does not mean that we cannot lose our salvation. If we were ever stupid enough to deny Jesus, to turn our back and to enter into rebellion again, we would be lost. But sin alone does not affect our salvation when we are of such a heart to confess it because we don't want it to abide in us. We don't need to seek forgiveness because it has been forgiven but we do need to confess it to be free from it.

As to the clarity of understanding that this is a free gift that cannot be earned or purchased by good living and sacrifice, Paul uses this illustration:

Workers’ salaries aren’t credited to them on the basis of an employer’s grace but rather on the basis of what they deserve. But faith is credited as righteousness to those who don’t work, because they have faith in God who makes the ungodly righteous. (v. 4-5)

If we could finally grasp this we might actually discover the quality and depth of the peace that Jesus has given to us. Only don't rest at the foot of the cross but instead press on to grow in maturity and power. We are called as warriors, to lay down our lives for the enemy of Yahweh because he wants to see everyone saved. Knowing our salvation is sure, go out today to do good for the sake of others.

It's Time To Start Enjoying The Ride

One of the hardest things for a Christian to accept and live is that salvation is free. Sure, we know it because we can read it for ourselves. We know that sin had mastery over us, enslaved us, and without being aware of it, we were powerless against it. In that state we thought we were in control of our lives and our behaviour. We understand that we had to be rescued, made free from the authority of sin in order to grasp the love of our Father. We understand that this was done by Jesus on the cross. We understand but do we live it?

Can you accept that by his actions on the cross Jesus saved you; that there is nothing you have to do to contribute to this rescue aside from believing and accepting it? True, we don't deserve it and find it mind-boggling that Father would even desire to do this for us but it doesn't change the truth.

What happens to our bragging? It’s thrown out. With which law? With what we have accomplished under the Law? No, not at all, but through the law of faith. We consider that a person is treated as righteous by faith, apart from what is accomplished under the Law. (Romans 3:27-28)

Living a good life does not add anything to the free gift of salvation. Reading your Bible, praying and attending church has to do with growing in your relationship with Jesus which is a separate issue from your salvation. All of your sins, past, present and future have been covered by the blood spilled on the cross all those years ago. You did nothing to contribute to it; it was all Jesus.

There is a difference between spiritual growth and salvation. We do not grow into our salvation but we do work out our salvation daily. We do grow into a more intimate relationship with Jesus. You have been forgiven because of Jesus' actions. All your sins (past, present and future) have been washed away, removed, forgotten. If you sin today, for the sake of a right heart with Father, you need to confess it, repent of it, but understand it has already been forgiven. Remember the Prodigal Son.

Stop beating yourself up over your sin; you are growing out of it. Simply allow your desire to change from your flesh pleasures to our heavenly delights. Stop looking at the things of this world and fix your mind and heart on things above. Pursue greater intimacy with Jesus and stop trying to earn your way. The ticket has been bought and delivered. Enjoy the ride.

United By The Blood

The beauty of the Church is that it is not homogeneous. It can't be. You and I are now family, no matter where we live, what we have done, what we look like. In the same worship center we will find police officers and ex-criminals, politicians and voters, the wealthy and the poor, the elderly and students. In many churches you will find people who speak all kinds of different languages, different skin colours, different origins. But regardless of our differences we have one thing in common: The grace offered through Jesus.

When we live in the Spirit the Church is a thing of great beauty; when we live by the flesh our differences make it an ugly place. It is vital that we understand that the Church cannot exist according to the flesh. It is not a club, a thing of business, something of this world. The Church is not a thing to be managed by a board of elders. It is a living thing that has life through the Spirit. Without the Spirit there is no life and it is an institution like any other institution of man.

As members of this living Body we are united by the Spirit under the headship of Jesus and this one thing must be remembered:

All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, but all are treated as righteous freely by his grace because of a ransom that was paid by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:23-24)

That is something else we have in common: We have all been found wanting by Yahweh. We have all fallen short of his standards. None of us can get there because we have all been in rebellion to him; we have all sinned. It doesn't matter about any of our differences, no one is better than anyone else because all sin is in rebellion to Yahweh. However, Jesus changed all that.

Jesus gave us something better to have in common with each other. Jesus paid the price so grace could be applied to all of us and in this grace all of us are treated as righteous, regardless of our past, regardless of our sin. In the Church there is no one better than another, no one great, no one small, no one more privileged than another. There is no male or female. There is no rich and poor. There is no colour. There is only us and our relationship with Jesus. This is the Church, the Body of Christ.

To anyone without Jesus, the Church is a bizarre place, filled with a collage of people. It is not homogeneous in the flesh but it is in what cannot been seen by the eye. In Jesus we are all the same, we are all children of Father and we are all covered by the blood of the Lamb. What was impossible for man was possible for Yahweh. We are family.

What Do You Have To Do To Be Saved?

How is a person saved from the eternal damnation we are all heading toward? Is it by paying money to the church? Is it by living a good life, treating everyone kindly, doing good deeds? Is it by praying, reading your Bible, going to church? Is it by doing anything?

Salvation involves doing but not as we may first think. To start with, all the doing was done by Jesus. Everything that needed to be done was done by Jesus. There was nothing we could do so Jesus came and did it. There is a little bit of doing on our part but that doing is simply to believe. To believe Jesus is who he says he is and to believe that he did what he said he did.

He was not a good man. He was not a prophet. He was not an early version of Gandhi. He was not a wise man teaching about love. He was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices, the one who could pay the price we could not pay, to do what we could not do. But it is a useless sacrifice if we do not believe.

Jesus' words:

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Not that "everyone won't perish" but "everyone who believes in him won't perish". He has done it all but we have to believe. Is this promise applied only to the Jews or a select group? The word "everyone" deals with that. Paul the apostle also made this matter clear:

God’s righteousness comes through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who have faith in him. There’s no distinction. (Romans 3:22)

The word "faith" is used here as a step beyond belief. Faith is belief in action. When we live by faith we live our lives in the belief that Jesus is the sacrifice that paid for all our sins and now we are saved from the eternal consequences of our sins. Salvation is not earned, cannot be bought, is found nowhere else other than through the sacrificial Lamb, who is Jesus. It is the reason this Lamb told us:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

Now everyone is left with the choice to believe or not. And that is all you need to do to be saved; believe. What happens to you after you choose to believe is another story.

Killing Our Wounded

Where did we go wrong in the Church? When did we actually start expecting and demanding perfection from people? When did we start believing that perfection was possible? Why are we ever surprised or shocked when a brother or sister stumbles? And why this act of self-righteousness; as if any of us could ever cast the first stone?

We are on a journey and that journey is a progression. It is not a slow steady curve on some kind of graph. It is a series of ups and downs and ups as we slowly grow and mature. A child does not learn to walk without falling. Even mature runners will occasionally fall. Considering that we are all just one decision away from sinning, none of us can afford to think that we are perfect. Being aware of our imperfections means we are willing to seek help when we need it.

Here is the fact: We all sin:

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. (Romans 3:9)

These are Paul the apostle's words as he describes Yahweh's judgement and the place for the Law. We do not need to sin as we have been freed from that authority over us and have been placed under Christ's authority. We have been given the power to overcome all temptation, but often our flesh is weak. There are all kinds of weak points, when we are tired, discouraged, confused, afraid. If we are strong in Christ then these moments are easy to overcome, which is why we should always be strong in Christ. But when we neglect the relationship these moments seem like mountains. At these times our flesh wants to take us in one direction and our spirit in another. We pray that maturity gives us the ability to choose the spirit over the flesh but sometimes we fail.

We need to recognize this in order to understand the importance of receiving and giving grace. Just as all of our sins have been covered by the sacrifice of Jesus, we need to cover the sins of our brothers and sisters. Before restoration can happen we must respond with grace and forgiveness. In order to create an atmosphere of repentance, where people are not afraid to confess their sins, we need to have a place of love, acceptance, forgiveness and a desire to see everyone healed and restored.

How can we reach out to a dying world in love when we don't know how to love our own? We tell the world to come to Jesus, to trust him for healing but instead of seeking healing for our fallen, we seek their destruction. Crazy.

Admitting sin is the first step to healing. Admitting that we, the Church, are not perfect is the first step to creating an atmosphere of grace. We must hear Jesus when he said that he did not come to condemn but to save. We need to re-vision why he left us here and what he told us to do. Perhaps we could start with his instruction to love each other as he has loved us.

Jesus Is All I Need

Things are changing quickly in our society. The social norms I grew up with are fading under the pressure for individual rights to choose what each person considers to be right and wrong. In this age of social media, it seems one week of pressure can bring about a wave of changed opinion. Obviously people do not have deep convictions and will change with the changing wind. So I wonder, if everyone changed their mind about Yahweh and stopped believing, would he cease to exist?

Perhaps a dumb question but it is the attitude of those who are trying to do away with faith in Yahweh from our society They want us to be our own gods, to make up our own morality, to redefine everything, throwing away the commands of our Creator. What is happening isn't new but it may be new to the age in which we live. So if they were to succeed, would Yahweh cease to be?

For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. (Romans 3:3-4)

Those who would destroy all faith on earth fail to understand our response to Yahweh's faithfulness. Even if they are successful in convincing those who are sitting on the fence right now, there are those of us who will never turn our back on the One who is always faithful to who he is. If he did not exist, was not faithful, was not every day present, was not involved with us every day, was not compassionate, merciful, overflowing with love, perhaps then they would have a chance to do what they want to do. But to us who deeply believe, Yahweh is all this and more.

It sure seems that the world is falling apart and the Church is being destroyed but the world is going as Jesus said it would choose to go, and the weak believers are doing exactly what Jesus said they would do. There are no surprises for Yahweh. He's seen it all and he has laid down his plans and we are in those plans. We are a people of great hope and joy because of Jesus Christ. This hope and joy are real because Yahweh is faithful.

Faith will exist at Jesus' return because Yahweh is faithful. There will be dark days and we may question a lot but none of it will change Yahweh's faithfulness. None of it will keep him from being him. We do not cling to the Church, we cling to Christ. We do not find hope in the world, we find hope in Jesus. We serve Christ through the Church and we serve Christ in the world, but it will always be Christ's faithfulness that will keep us going through it all. Stand firm.

What Is Sin And Why Do I Struggle With It?

Maybe our problem is the way we define sin. Maybe that is what all the confusion is about. It seems that we are confusing the fruit of sin with the root of sin and we need a little education from the Word to better understand the parameters of our discussion. Let's start with this fact:

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)

And just for good measure we shall add:

"If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." (1 John 1:10)

So something everyone in this world has in common is this fact that we have all fallen short of Yahweh's glory. None of us can ever claim that we have never sinned against Yahweh and thus having sinned stand guilty of our rebellion. But consider the root of all our behaviour, which is rebellion against Yahweh:

"All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6)

The lying, stealing, cheating, sexual immorality, hatred, murder, and all the rest are only the fruit of sin. Just as love, joy, peace, hope and all the rest is the fruit of his love in us, all the negative stuff is the fruit of our sin nature which is rebellion against Yahweh. How is sin defined? "We have turned, every one, to his own way." That is the best definition you are going to find. Our actions are only the fruit of the root and the root is a heart that is turned to it's own ways instead of the righteous path of Yahweh.

All the epic battles in your life have come down to the struggle between your selfish nature and Yahweh's holiness. Eve's sin was a selfish act, when she put her wants ahead of Yahweh's instructions. David's many sins stemmed from the same source as has every sinful act committed by every single human in history.

Only Jesus has made it possible for this bondage to be broken so that we can make ourselves slaves to Yahweh's righteousness. If that is not your desire you will continue to stumble, struggle, and war against yourself. Peace is found when we swim out to the current of Father's will and allow ourselves to be carried along, swimming with the current instead of against it. Understand the source, the root of the fruit that is produced in your life. Is it the good stuff produced by the Spirit in you, or the rotten stuff that comes from your heart rooted in rebellion? If you can understand this root, you may discover you have been sinning without knowing it, blocking your destiny with Yahweh. Discover it, confess it, be set free from it, and begin to soar as you were designed to soar.