Repentance
This week I have been listening to CDs from the past two weekends because I missed church (being out of town). I was listening to my pastor speak about the efficacy of the cross and our salvation being accomplished through Christ's death and resurrection. He spoke of the arrogance of anyone who would try to add their own rules, regulations and merit to Christ's perfect sacrifice on our behalf.
In the same sermon, he strongly admonished us to live lives of obedience to the glory of God in thankfulness for what He has done for us in Christ. Not because our works can ever qualify us to stand in His presence. To believe such is to lower God's holiness and nullify God's grace. We obey God in order to glorify Him in the earth; not to earn for ourselves something that He has freely given which we could never earn for ourselves or deserve.
When we do not recognize our sin and repent, we are choosing to stand on our own merit. That's an arrogant and a scary thing.
We are clothed in Christ's righteousness and not our own. We overcome through the blood of the Lamb. We are washed in His blood and not only forgiven, but made pure by His blood. What God requires is our repentance, not our "self" righteousness. We must be poor in spirit, seeking His mercies every day and never counting ourselves as worthy of His love and grace.
I'm so overwhelmed by the revelation of the gospel. All my life I tried to live as a Christian, but I didn't even understand salvation. I was taught that I had to earn eternal life through my own perfect, sinless life. I loved Jesus, but I didn't comprehend what He had done for me. And I never once believed I could measure up to God's requirements. So sometimes I didn't even try.
For years after leaving this teaching I was haunted by the scriptures that had been used out of context to convince me of this "truth." It robbed me of the promises of God. It robbed me of peace. It robbed me of the freedom Christ died to give me. It robbed me of the power of the cross.
I read something in the last couple of weeks that helped me with one of those passages. I wish I could remember where I read this. I've gone back through some of my daily subscription stuff and I can't find it. But it was a commentary on the apostle Paul's admonition to run the race in order to gain the prize. The author of this commentary explained that Paul is using the example of an athletic event to exort us to run as if there would only be one prize and one winner. However, we know that is not the case. The same reward will be given to many. Nevertheless, we are not to be complacent, but to run as if the prize depended on our performance while knowing it is only by grace, through faith that we are saved.
Repentance has been on my mind quite a lot lately. I can't fathom why anyone would refuse to repent to a loving God who has promised to purify us from our sins through the sacrificial death of His Son. Why would repentance be so hard? Why would anyone choose self-justification over the justification available to us through Christ? I can't come up with any answer other than arrogance.
Salvation is God's offer of love and mercy to us and repentance is the requirement. Please don't refuse the cross.
'Refusing to let God be gracious'
There are large numbers of people who ... are seeking to commend themselves to God by their own works. They think it noble to try to win their way to God and to heaven. But it is not noble; it is dreadfully ignoble. For, in effect, it is to deny both the nature of God and the mission of Christ. It is to refuse to let God be gracious. It is to tell Christ that he need not have bothered to die. For both the grace of God and the death of Christ become redundant, if we are masters of our own destiny and can save ourselves.
--From "The Message of Galatians" (The Bible Speaks Today series: London and Downers Grove: IVP, 1968), p. 66.
In the same sermon, he strongly admonished us to live lives of obedience to the glory of God in thankfulness for what He has done for us in Christ. Not because our works can ever qualify us to stand in His presence. To believe such is to lower God's holiness and nullify God's grace. We obey God in order to glorify Him in the earth; not to earn for ourselves something that He has freely given which we could never earn for ourselves or deserve.
When we do not recognize our sin and repent, we are choosing to stand on our own merit. That's an arrogant and a scary thing.
We are clothed in Christ's righteousness and not our own. We overcome through the blood of the Lamb. We are washed in His blood and not only forgiven, but made pure by His blood. What God requires is our repentance, not our "self" righteousness. We must be poor in spirit, seeking His mercies every day and never counting ourselves as worthy of His love and grace.
I'm so overwhelmed by the revelation of the gospel. All my life I tried to live as a Christian, but I didn't even understand salvation. I was taught that I had to earn eternal life through my own perfect, sinless life. I loved Jesus, but I didn't comprehend what He had done for me. And I never once believed I could measure up to God's requirements. So sometimes I didn't even try.
For years after leaving this teaching I was haunted by the scriptures that had been used out of context to convince me of this "truth." It robbed me of the promises of God. It robbed me of peace. It robbed me of the freedom Christ died to give me. It robbed me of the power of the cross.
I read something in the last couple of weeks that helped me with one of those passages. I wish I could remember where I read this. I've gone back through some of my daily subscription stuff and I can't find it. But it was a commentary on the apostle Paul's admonition to run the race in order to gain the prize. The author of this commentary explained that Paul is using the example of an athletic event to exort us to run as if there would only be one prize and one winner. However, we know that is not the case. The same reward will be given to many. Nevertheless, we are not to be complacent, but to run as if the prize depended on our performance while knowing it is only by grace, through faith that we are saved.
Repentance has been on my mind quite a lot lately. I can't fathom why anyone would refuse to repent to a loving God who has promised to purify us from our sins through the sacrificial death of His Son. Why would repentance be so hard? Why would anyone choose self-justification over the justification available to us through Christ? I can't come up with any answer other than arrogance.
Salvation is God's offer of love and mercy to us and repentance is the requirement. Please don't refuse the cross.
'Refusing to let God be gracious'
There are large numbers of people who ... are seeking to commend themselves to God by their own works. They think it noble to try to win their way to God and to heaven. But it is not noble; it is dreadfully ignoble. For, in effect, it is to deny both the nature of God and the mission of Christ. It is to refuse to let God be gracious. It is to tell Christ that he need not have bothered to die. For both the grace of God and the death of Christ become redundant, if we are masters of our own destiny and can save ourselves.
--From "The Message of Galatians" (The Bible Speaks Today series: London and Downers Grove: IVP, 1968), p. 66.
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