One of the best kept secrets among Christians today is this: Jesus paid it all. I mean all. He not only purchased your forgiveness of sins and your ticket to heaven, He purchased every blessing and every answer to prayer you will ever receive. Every one of them—no exceptions.
Why is this such a well-kept secret? For one thing, we are afraid of this truth. We are afraid to tell even ourselves that we don’t have to work anymore, the work is all done. We are afraid that if we really believe this, we will slack off in our Christian duties. But the deeper core issue is that we don’t really believe we are still bankrupt. Having come into God’s kingdom by grace alone solely on the merit of Another, we’re now trying to pay our own way by our performance. We declared only temporary bankruptcy; we are now trying to live by good works rather than by grace.
All true Christians readily agree that justification is by grace through faith in Christ. And if we stop to think about it, we agree that glorification is also solely by God’s grace. Jesus purchased for us not only forgiveness of sins (justification) but also eternal life (glorification). But sanctification—the entire Christian experience between justification and glorification—is another story. At best, the Christian life is viewed as a mixture of personal performance and God’s grace. It is not that we have consciously sorted it all out in our minds and have concluded that our relationship with God, for example, is based on 50 percent performance and 50 percent grace. Rather it is a subconscious assumption arising from our own innate legalism—reinforced and fueled by the Christian culture we live in.
Not only has the debt been fully paid, there is no possibility of going into debt again. Jesus paid the debt of all our sins: past, present, and future. As Paul said in Colossians 2:13, “[God] forgave us all our sins.” We don’t have to start all over again and try to keep the slate clean. There is no more slate. As Stephen Brown wrote, “God took our slate and He broke it in pieces and threw it away.” This is true not only for our justification, but for our Christian lives as well. God is not keeping score, granting or withholding blessings on the basis of our performance. The score has already been permanently settled by Christ.
wow. THANK YOU JESUS!!!
most of the first chapter is in a pdf on the NAVs website, which is where i got this from... you can read it at: http://www.navpress.com/images/pdfs/9781600063039.pdf
remembering Jesus today...
thanks for this Nina, i had to go back and read ch. 1 again...it's just SO TRUE. God's grace is just SO HUGE!
ReplyDeletemy mind can't comprehend it...i just sit and try...and then can't. my only response is the same as yours "wow. thank You Jesus!"