Some people find it difficult to stomach self-righteous, mean-spirited, condemning “preachers.” I am one of those people. It nauseates me to see hateful messages on billboards or people standing on street corners with signs that read “God hates…” It’s disturbing because those messages completely distort what is supposed to be “good news.”
On the flip side, it also bothers me when I hear the good news presented as a way to receive quick, easy, free forgiveness, no strings attached-leaving out the part about repentance (what that means), and, most importantly, the newness of life promised to anyone who “signs up” for Jesus.
Ah, that’s it! It seems that our first problem is that we think we have to “sign up” for salvation; as if it’s a “thing” and not a Person. Maybe if we could get past that false idea the good news would come alive to us at last.
JESUS is Salvation. HE is the “good news,” HE is the Kingdom of God (remember, He said it is “within” us, and Paul said that we are a “temple” of the living God?); HE is the Life and peace that was promised to us. But very few recognized that when He walked this earth (they weren’t expecting Salvation, they were expecting “salvation”-as if it were a place or circumstance, or thing), and, unfortunately, it seems that many seem to be expecting the same now.
Even the disciples had a hard time understanding that Christ was “it.” “Tear down this Temple and in three days I will raise it up again,” Jesus said to them. So, they gazed in wonder at the temple instead of The Temple.
The next problem seems to be that, while it is sort of easy for some of us to accept the fact that we can be forgiven, it is difficult for most of us to believe that we can also be changed. “I’m human.” “I have a ‘sinful nature.'” “I can’t control my passions.” All true (see Romans 7). But those very truths are EXACTLY why Christ came to earth (see Romans 6 and 8). If He simply wanted to offer forgiveness, He could have just died. Easier, He could have just ordered us to continue sacrificing, and to do our best to keep the law. No, Christ had a bigger purpose in mind. He wanted to completely destroy the works of sin and death that were brought into this world by selfishness and spread because of our arrogant desire for independence. He wanted to set His people free from their bondage to SIN (not simply to free them from their Roman adversaries or whoever else they happened to be “under” at any given time) that was keeping them from communing with God, and from experiencing the joy and peace and LIFE they (we) once had and were intended to have. So He defeated death by taking our sin upon Himself (as they used to “cast” sin upon the sacrifice), and then He came alive again.
My husband and I recently celebrated the anniversary of our togetherness by going to breakfast at a cute little place we went to the day we decided to start dating (one year ago). While we were there, we stumbled across three passages that thoroughly explain that “good news.” I strongly suggest that you read all three of them in their entirety, but for brevity’s sake I will only post the highlights.
Isaiah 12
“Then you will say on that day, I will give thanks to You, O LORD; for although You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.
{God turned away from anger and brought us comfort.}
“Behold, God is my salvation,
{Pause: What was that again? WHO is our Salvation? Not WHAT but WHO?}
“I will trust and not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and song, and He {WHO?} has become my salvation.”
Jeremiah 33
“I have hidden My face from this city because of all their wickedness: Behold, I will bring it to health . . . and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth. . . . I will cleanse them . . . I will pardon all their iniquities which they have sinned against me . . . a righteous Branch . . . {will} spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she will be called: the Lord {WHO?} is our righteousness.”
{God does not just stamp us with righteousness. He IS righteousness. His Life in us is what makes us righteous before God.}
Ezekiel 37:11-27
Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves . . . Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves. . . I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life . . .
“They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them . . .
” . . . they will all have one shepherd; and they will . . . keep My statutes and observe them. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. . . and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.
There is no need to add anything else to those words. If we embrace them, we will begin to understand them, and when we do, liberty will come. We’ll stop wrestling with ourselves and with what we know about God, and instead will let God be the life in us, transforming us from the inside out. I know this from experience. “Not that I have already obtained this or have already been made perfect,” said the very human apostle, “but I PRESS ON . . . to lay hold of that for which Christ has also laid hold of me.” I’m still a fragile, feeble, struggling human. But His life in me has SET ME FREE and has enabled me to breathe. I just have to keep remembering . . . Salvation is a PERSON. If I’m in Him, I’ll be just fine.
“Forgetting what is behind . . . ”
“If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come . . .”
“Therefore do not let sinreign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those ALIVE FROM THE DEAD, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:12-14
We should not strive for unattainable “perfection.” We should strive to be “made complete” (perfection) in Christ. He IS and will be all we need for life and godliness (1 Peter 1:3-4).
In the words of one of my favorite writers: Grace and peace be multiplied to you!
Your fellow seeker and servant,
Stephanie
[email protected]
P.O. Box 950431
Atlanta, GA 30377
www.StephanieStaples.com
