Stop just for a minute and picture what Christ must have seen in the garden which caused Him to be shaken to His very core that His sweat became drops of blood. Then, because it glorified God to exhibit love towards us, Jesus marched forward. Pondering that it was our condition in sin that Christ saw, the wrath of God that was aimed at us, this is what kept Christ on the cross with the need to satisfy God’s judgment of sin, which is our failure to live in a way that would please God or reveal God’s character. The emptied tomb should be the chief motivation to “doing all things to God’s glory” (1 Corinthians 10:31) and living a life of as a vessel reflecting His character.
Focusing on this cannot but help increase our heart of gratitude. As this increases so does our desire to focus more on Christ and say “I love You” through obedience to the Father. In doing this, our view, our sight line, begins to create a type of tunnel vision on the majesty of the Father and the awesomeness of Christ. When this occurs, we see a life that reveals less of the effects of sin and more of the changes brought about through the beauty of grace. That is called living to our identity in Christ.
As you choose to make decisions on who you are now in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, rather than who you were before Christ you will find yourself making choices that reflect that new identity. The more of these choices you make the less you will sin. Though sometimes it will still feel like your making more of the wrong choices than the right ones. God understands, has forgiveness waiting when you repent (change your mind) and opens arms wide to reveal His Love.
May we ask God to surround us instead with friends who may speak the truth and encourage us on how to get it right, but more importantly, they are willing to do an emotional fireman’s carry to the One who already got it right, and hold us there until we can imitate Him.
Can I know for sure I have eternal life?
This is a great question, a common one, and yet one that can cause much confusion when answering. The confusion comes from a heart that is really having difficulty grasping the words of Christ when He said “It is finished” (John 19:30). In a world where the sentiment exists that there is no such thing as a free ride, it is indeed hard to grasp that the grace (favor) God gives each of us, to come and accept Christ as our Saviour is freely given, requiring nothing more from us. When every day we must work to achieve, we must meet someone’s expectations of us or some of the burdens we often bear. Even if those expectations are to be a good wife, husband, child, or parent. Not to mention the expectations that our employers, customers, teachers, friends or just society in general places on us. Now comes news that there is something that is totally different than everything else that we have been taught, lived by or believed.
That is the beauty of the gospel of grace. It is new news, not old news or old news packaged in a new wrapping. It really is new news, that is contrary to the news our hearts have come to believe. In fact our hearts have been so conditioned by the way this world thinks that they are indeed grace-averse. Robert Capon articulates brilliantly the prayer of the grace-averse heart:
Lord, please restore to us the comfort of merit and demerit. Show us that there is at least something we can do. Tell us that at the end of the day there will at least be one redeeming card of our very own. Lord, if it is not too much to ask, send us to bed with a few shreds of self-respect upon which we can congratulate ourselves. But whatever you do, do not preach grace. Give us something to do, anything; but spare us the indignity of this indiscriminate acceptance.
That is why the concept of grace being a free gift (Something we do not deserve) is so foreign to us. We desperately want something to hold onto, to claim some ownership of, to know that we met some standard that we could claim some form of redeeming quality about ourselves. We want to know that we could live in such a way that would gain God’s pleasure or favor. The truth though is that we cannot. Paul said, in Romans 3:23, “All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.” He also said, in Galatians 2:16, “But we know that God accepts only those who have faith in Jesus Christ. No one can please God by simply obeying the Law. So, we put our faith in Christ Jesus, and God accepted us because of our faith.”
In other words even if we could perform perfectly the things God has told us to do, it would still not be enough because keeping the laws of God will never enable us to have a right standing before God. Truth is we could never do it perfectly and as a result could never satisfy the need that God has for His justice to be met. God demands justice for our sin. Just as when someone commits a crime they must pay a penalty or carry out a sentence so must we for failing to live in a way that meets God’s character of perfection.
Because we cannot do this is why we are condemned to spend eternity separated from Him. What the Bible refers to as Spiritual death. This is the death that Paul speaks of in Romans 6:23, “Sin pays off with death. But God’s gift is eternal life given by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Oh! And what a gift it is!
A gift we can have no part in, for if we could we would make an absolute mess of it. No! It is a gift that comes through not earning, not performing, not working to maintain, earn or sustain, after all what kind of gift would that be. It comes through us placing our faith in the finished work of Christ and not our own abilities. Since it comes through the sacrifice of Christ and is a gift is why we can now know for sure that we have eternal life. This is the message of 1 John 5:13 which says, “that you who believe in God’s Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life” (The Message).
In John 10:28, Christ said “and I give them eternal life, so that they will never be lost. No one can snatch them out of my hand.” The “them” here means anyone of us. In other words we can never take ourselves or be taken out of Christ’s hands. Now that is security, to know that we can’t even work our way out of God’s hands. Often, as we walk this life of grace, there will be times we will be like the kid in the grocery store trying to squirm out of our mom or dad’s hands. Just like when we were kids, we wanted to run wild and free, untethered to anyone, we wanted to explore, have fun and do as we please. We often will live our lives, serve God, or walk this journey of grace doing just as we please. In fact we will do that more often than we will not. Just as when we tried to squirm out of our mom and dad’s hands and they gripped tighter, so does God. The joy robbing pain of everyday living may often cause us to doubt not only our faith but God’s love. It is during such times of doubt he grabs hold of our hand tighter as he gently whispers “I love you so much.” There really is nothing that can separate us from His radical, passionate love towards us He calls His children (Romans 8:38-39).
Not only is our gift of salvation the greatest gift we will ever receive, it is the only gift we will ever get that never stops giving. We do not just come into a relationship with Christ through grace given freely, it is that same grace God gives new each day that ensures as Paul said in Philippians 1:6, “that He (God) won’t stop before it is complete (making us into Christ’s image) on the day that Christ Jesus returns (ESV).” We do not just get saved through grace, but we continue in our relationship with Christ through the Holy Spirit as He finishes this work. Making us new; making us into who we were designed to be (Galatians 3:2-5). Even as we choose to live in obedience out of a grateful heart, it is not in our strength that we do so, but because we are strengthened to do so by that very same grace given freely through Christ (2 Timothy 2:1, ESV). There really is nothing we can do, nor do we have any part in making sure that when Christ returns we are presented to God blameless (God will not hold anything against us, 1 Thessalonians 5:23).
In a world demanding us to perform and meet standards to qualify to be accepted. Where everyday it seems just living life is an ever increasing weight of burden. Where it just seems that we will never make it, where some have even stopped trying and the acceptance and approval we seek seems so far out of reach. Where the to do lists seem to get longer and the list of people we need not fail, we need to please grows larger by the day. There is great comfort in knowing that God always finishes His to do list. His number one priority on that list is those He calls His own (Psalms 33:10-11). Because God has promised to finish what He started and because our salvation is 100% His work. We no longer need to meet someone else’s standards, list of qualifications or fear the disapproval of others. God has already qualified us. Made us accepted to Him, through Christ and made us ready