Friday, July 13, 2018

Glimpses of Grace #4

When God shakes you to wake you about wrong thinking, it is a grace from him.

I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but BR (Before Romans), and somehow over the past years, I slid into this faulty middle thinking ground of ignoring the truth about eternal separation from God as the opposite of eternal salvation. 

I mean, doesn't God love everybody and know we're all doing the best we can just to make it on this earth, and won't He cut us some slack because it's really tough being human and He'll understand in the end and we'll all be happy ever after in heaven?

Romans makes it very clear that God is loving and merciful, but that He is also just and holy. God's word makes it very clear that not every one will live happily ever after. It makes very clear that rejection of Christ means condemnation. 

Every one of us is sinful and need saving. 

We all have a very big problem that we cannot solve.

This is so not grey. This is so "you're in" or "you're out." And that's just seems way too harsh. So exclusive. So black and white. 

Is it really that black and white?

There are actually some black and white - some stark opposite examples -  around us all the time.

Day/Night
Male/Female
Absence/Presence
Death/Life
Asleep/Awake

I was pondering all of this recently, when a scene from the movie, Knight and Day came to mind. 

Completely opposite results were at stake.
     With Tom, she'd make it.
     Without Tom, she wouldn't.

In this world, we are not without precedence for 1 of only 2 choices being present - being a reality - at a time. 

You are either asleep or awake.
You are either male or female.
You are either dead or alive.
You are either physically absent or physically present.
There is light or there is darkness.

So, for God to reveal to us in the Bible that there are only 2 realities that exist beyond life as we know on this earth is not far fetched or unrealistic. It is truth.

Now, this would be a harsh reality if the Bible taught that "you're out with no hope of getting in," but it doesn't teach that. It teaches that we are all out, but God, being rich in mercy, has made a way for us all to be in. 

He made a way for us to be in Christ. To be saved from eternal separation from Himself. 

God made a way by sending Jesus to take the punishment for our sins. God affirmed that Jesus' sacrifice and death was accepted by him when He raised Jesus from the dead 3 days after being crucified. This showed that Jesus was exactly who He said He was and that his death accomplished our salvation and defeated death! We are no longer condemned! He took our sin and gave us His righteousness and now - nothing but ultimate good in store for me - and anyone else who is saved by grace through faith in Christ!

Who does that? 

God does.  

My biggest problem has been eternally solved. 
I am no longer condemned before the holy, just God.

I'm loved! I am forgiven, justified, (being) sanctified and one day, I will be glorified and be with God forever. Nothing that happens to me now is punitive, but only purifying. He has promised there will be suffering on this earth, and I don't relish or look forward to that, but I pray and hope and trust God will give me the grace I need when I need it. 

And for a gazillion million infinties, I will be in Christ, with God. Part of His kingdom come!

That is a polar opposite from what my future could have been.

Grace. 
It's all grace.


For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8


Why Glimpses of Grace

Glimpses of Grace #2

Glimpses of Grace #3

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