A little more from Chapter Three: Preach the Gospel to Yourself
The standard of obedience required by the law is absolute perfection, for James 2:10 tells us, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." The apostle Paul said essentially the same thing when he wrote, "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." (Galatians 3:10)
Only perfect obedience is acceptable to God...Only 100 percent is acceptable. Yet the average person walking around today, if he or she has thought about it at all, is confident God will accept him or her because he or she is generally a decent sort of person.
As Christians we know better. We readily acknowledge that we can never through our own obedience attain a righteousness that is sufficient for salvation. But then as believers we act as if we can live lives acceptable to God. Think of the good-day-bad-day scenarios I described in chapter 1. More than 80 percent of the people I've questioned in a group setting indicate they would be more confident of God's blessing when they've had a "good" day. None of them, however, would claim 100-percent obedience. Not one of them would want to stake his or her hope for eternal life on his or her performance on the very best day. Yet, in our everyday relationship with God, most of us are no different in our thinking than the unbelievers who think they will go to Heaven because they've been good enough. To live by grace, we must rid ourselves of such thinking.
Faith is self-emptying. "It involves our complete renunciation of any confidence in our own righteousness and a relying entirely on the perfect righteousness and death of Jesus Christ."
"...in order to trust in Christ for one's salvation, one must completely abandon any trust in one's own goodness or merit. Faith in Christ and a reliance on ourselves, even to the smallest degree, are mutually exclusive...This doctrine of trusting in Jesus Christ alone for one's salvation is a basic truth of the gospel. Without acceptance of it there is no salvation."
Turning to the Old Testament, to preach the gospel to yourself means that you appropriate by faith the words of Isaiah 53:6:
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
It means that you dwell upon the promise that God has removed your transgressions from you as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), that He has blotted out your transgressions and remembers your sin no more (Isaiah 43:25)...It is the death of Christ through which He satisfied the justice of God and averted from us the wrath of God that is the basis of all God's promises of forgiveness. We must be careful that in preaching the gospel to ourselves, we do not preach a gospel without a cross. We must be careful that we do not rely on the so-called unconditional love of God without realizing that His love can only flow to us as a result of Christ's atoning death.
...this grace -- unmerited favor to those who deserve wrath -- comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Last night in my small group, I told my friends how I constantly struggle with a feeling of being a disappointment to God. A continual disappointment. Those have always been the first words that would come to my mind if someone asked me to describe how I think God sees me. I have always believed He loved me. And I have experienced His love more than ever, in such tangible ways, over the last five years of my life. I never doubt His love for me. But I still see myself as the loved child who is a disappointment to her Father. I know there are a lot of contributing factors to the self-image I carry; the feeling of not being good enough. I know that some of you who are reading fully understand because you've carried that same weight. It's often a result of never being able to meet people's expectations of us. And we should not be rooted in the desire to please people. But neither is the answer for us to just feel good about ourselves. That's the world's answer. The only true answer for our condition is to begin to believe who we are in and through Christ. Because apart from Him, we are deserving of wrath.
My heart wants to not only be loved by God, but to please Him with my life and all my choices. And I know that I don't. For me, preaching the gospel to myself includes reminding myself that I am joined to Christ and I am clothed in HIS righteousness, not a righteousness of my own. So when God looks at me, He does not see a disappointment. Because of the blood of Jesus, I am declared righteous in His sight.
Therefore, I long for the day when all anyone sees in me is Jesus. I will never stop trying to grow more fully into the image of Christ. But not so that I can shine or so that I can have a legacy or an honor of my own (or feel good about me). I want only to be a reflection of His glory because He has shined His light on my life.
Only perfect obedience is acceptable to God...Only 100 percent is acceptable. Yet the average person walking around today, if he or she has thought about it at all, is confident God will accept him or her because he or she is generally a decent sort of person.
As Christians we know better. We readily acknowledge that we can never through our own obedience attain a righteousness that is sufficient for salvation. But then as believers we act as if we can live lives acceptable to God. Think of the good-day-bad-day scenarios I described in chapter 1. More than 80 percent of the people I've questioned in a group setting indicate they would be more confident of God's blessing when they've had a "good" day. None of them, however, would claim 100-percent obedience. Not one of them would want to stake his or her hope for eternal life on his or her performance on the very best day. Yet, in our everyday relationship with God, most of us are no different in our thinking than the unbelievers who think they will go to Heaven because they've been good enough. To live by grace, we must rid ourselves of such thinking.
Faith is self-emptying. "It involves our complete renunciation of any confidence in our own righteousness and a relying entirely on the perfect righteousness and death of Jesus Christ."
"...in order to trust in Christ for one's salvation, one must completely abandon any trust in one's own goodness or merit. Faith in Christ and a reliance on ourselves, even to the smallest degree, are mutually exclusive...This doctrine of trusting in Jesus Christ alone for one's salvation is a basic truth of the gospel. Without acceptance of it there is no salvation."
Turning to the Old Testament, to preach the gospel to yourself means that you appropriate by faith the words of Isaiah 53:6:
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
It means that you dwell upon the promise that God has removed your transgressions from you as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), that He has blotted out your transgressions and remembers your sin no more (Isaiah 43:25)...It is the death of Christ through which He satisfied the justice of God and averted from us the wrath of God that is the basis of all God's promises of forgiveness. We must be careful that in preaching the gospel to ourselves, we do not preach a gospel without a cross. We must be careful that we do not rely on the so-called unconditional love of God without realizing that His love can only flow to us as a result of Christ's atoning death.
...this grace -- unmerited favor to those who deserve wrath -- comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Last night in my small group, I told my friends how I constantly struggle with a feeling of being a disappointment to God. A continual disappointment. Those have always been the first words that would come to my mind if someone asked me to describe how I think God sees me. I have always believed He loved me. And I have experienced His love more than ever, in such tangible ways, over the last five years of my life. I never doubt His love for me. But I still see myself as the loved child who is a disappointment to her Father. I know there are a lot of contributing factors to the self-image I carry; the feeling of not being good enough. I know that some of you who are reading fully understand because you've carried that same weight. It's often a result of never being able to meet people's expectations of us. And we should not be rooted in the desire to please people. But neither is the answer for us to just feel good about ourselves. That's the world's answer. The only true answer for our condition is to begin to believe who we are in and through Christ. Because apart from Him, we are deserving of wrath.
My heart wants to not only be loved by God, but to please Him with my life and all my choices. And I know that I don't. For me, preaching the gospel to myself includes reminding myself that I am joined to Christ and I am clothed in HIS righteousness, not a righteousness of my own. So when God looks at me, He does not see a disappointment. Because of the blood of Jesus, I am declared righteous in His sight.
Therefore, I long for the day when all anyone sees in me is Jesus. I will never stop trying to grow more fully into the image of Christ. But not so that I can shine or so that I can have a legacy or an honor of my own (or feel good about me). I want only to be a reflection of His glory because He has shined His light on my life.
Comments
Galatians 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
God bless,
Todd E.