11/13/2017
If you live according to the commandments, are you owed righteousness and everlasting life? How can we be so bold as to feel this way when into the vile pit of sin, and human debasement Jesus walked, suffered, took on sin, died, and was raised again... all for us in our undeserving state. He loved us first, he chose us in love before the creation of the world, and knew us while we were yet in our mother’s womb. How is it we feel entitled?
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 KJV
I was praying at the altar one Sunday morning, and I overheard a man praying for someone who was sick; he was speaking loudly and in a demanding voice as he said “I claim this healing, I demand it by your word and promise!” My heart nearly ruptured when I heard those words and felt the spiteful authority in his voice! I couldn’t imagine making demands of the God I loved, and certainly not in such a tone, or in such a manner. I trusted in His promise, but would never speak to Him with such insolence.
God sent His Son to the cross for us out of love, a love we did not deserve to have, and once we experience the grace and goodness of our Father’s love, how could we ever speak to him in such a manner? When we have received His sacrifice, how could we ever demand His compliance to our wishes as if we deserved His attention?
As a boy, I spoke to my earthly father in a tone such as this only once, that I can recall, and it shamed me. This man loved me with every breath he took, and his gentleness of spirit flowed from him. I didn’t honor him out of an obligation to commandment, but in reciprocity for the love he showed me.
In this scripture Paul said “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” As Christians we cease to be the source of life within ourselves, and Jesus becomes our life. If our own life force is all we have then death is our destiny, but with Christ eternity awaits.
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 6:23 KJV
Jesus isn’t the fulfillment of a contract we have with God... He is our endowment! He is a gift given to us without occasion. He is the Lamb of God sent as a symbol of God’s own love for us. He is restitution, redemption, and salvation all rolled into one. He is the very life of eternity that courses through those who accept Him.
“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 1:30-31 ESV
So the life of Jesus isn’t so much what we seek to emulate, but rather what we long to live, because we are in Him, and He in us. Oswald Chambers wrote of our undeserving and inadequate position relative to our salvation, and our inability to earn Christ’s redemption by any sacrifice on our part in these words...
“Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims - that He can present us faultless before the throne of God, unutterably pure, absolutely rectified and profoundly justified. Stand in implicit adoring faith in Him, He is made unto us “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” How can we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of a God! Our salvation is from hell and perdition, and then we talk about making sacrifices!” - Oswald Chambers
In His presence we are humbled, and if we are not... then we are not really in His presence after all. So it is our place to humbly accept His gift; the gift of grace that the Father has sent by Him.
I used to roam my grandfather’s farm, and one day I heard a sound coming from underneath one of the old log houses that were used for storage. It was a familiar sound and I was thrilled... it was the sound of a little kitten. So I used my best kitten voice and began to coerce and cajole until at last I could see the face of a sad looking little guy, and continued until he was within reach where I grabbed hold of him. I drug him reluctantly out and inspected him. He was malnourished, dirty, and sickly, but that made me love him more.
So I tucked him in my shirt, brought him to my grandmother’s house, fed him a bowl of milk, and then, to his reluctant compliance, I cleaned him up. When he had dried from his bath we laid down together and I petted him. He purred, and I spoke lovingly to him until we were both napping. Afterwards he followed me everywhere I went, and as the days passed he began to recover and look beautiful.
This is what God has done for us, He has found us dirty and without nourishment, and called us to Him. Then, despite our having done nothing to deserve it, He sacrifices and feeds us with the food of His own Son, and cleans us up by immersing us in His Spirit until our faith becomes a thing of beauty. But unlike the kitten in my story, many of us choose to run off and go right back underneath the old house where we had been found, or to bite and scratch at His hand.
So which orphaned kitten are you? Are you the loving and grateful one, or the rebellious kitten that bites, and then runs back to his old life in the filth beneath the storehouse? Are you the one that loves the boy because he first loved you, or come out from the dark only if there is a bowl of milk placed there to lure you?
Choose!
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Son Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and the Gift Bearer of your grace for mankind. I thank you for allowing me to live in Him, and He in me. Your love for me was established and reached fullness from the foundation of the world, and you knew me before I was born; how can I ever think that I can earn your love; a love that has existed from before I was. Holy Father your grace is sufficient for me, and instills in me the life of Christ that lives throughout eternity. In Him I am in you, and all of creation is laid out before me. Although I am an unworthy man you have seen something in me that has caused you to love me, and I love you in return. Praised be your name Father, and may the glory of your grace and mercy forever shine upon you in revelation of your greatness and love!
Rich Forbes