The first thing that comes to mind after reading this is the effect that sin can have in our lives. For me especially the second I’m convicted by the spirit, I condemn myself. I’ve always struggled with the concept of Grace and Forgiveness. Yeah, Jesus forgave my sins, but didn’t He have to? Isn’t it in His job description to Forgive everyone?
You want me to let you in on a little secret?......it’s not. Being the Christ is not a job for my Savior, it is a choice. He willingly stepped down from His Glory right beside His Father and came down to the earth to Sacrifice HImself in a gruesome way so that one day His Father could look at me and see not a slave to sin but see His Son, and in that be able to have a relationship with Him that I in no other way could have attained.
He was thinking of me while He was hanging on the cross, He was thinking about all of us, each individual human being that ever existed, had existed, did exist and would exist, all of us where running through His mind. He knew what He was choosing to do, and just who specifically He was doing it for. C.S Lewis said it best “He did not die for man, but each man, if each man would have been the only man,He would have done no less”
He was thinking,I’m doing this for Monica, so that she can have forgiveness and redemption, and so when My Father sees her, He doesn’t see her imperfection, her brokenness, her wicked heart, but He sees Me. He sees His Son.
Jesus’ redemption was so selfless, it leaves me awestruck. I no longer have to be a slave to sin, because through Him I have strength to resist, or forgiveness when I’m weak and give in. Death no longer can hold me because He has rescued me. I get to enjoy the blessings that God bestows upon His Son because now that I have received Him and His forgiveness, when the Master looks at me, He doesn’t see a slave, but His Son. The Father now invites me to live and abide with Him,to eat His food, to sit at His table and to enjoy His inheritance. Not because of anything I have done, not because I was such a good or worthy slave, but because His Son was The Good and Worthy Lamb who was willfully slain for me.
Application: I will spend 30 minutes meditating of John 3 verses 14-18, substituting my name wherever I see the words “ the world” and “whoever” with “when she”.
No comments:
Post a Comment