Do you ever have times when you feel like there is a dark, ominous cloud hanging over you? When you feel like nothing you do is the right thing and everything you touch turns out wrong. We often beat ourselves up over our failures. We also let others beat us up as well. We don’t live up to other people’s standards and we get beat up. We don’t respond to crisis the way someone thinks we should and they beat us up. We don’t keep promises and we beat ourselves up.
Paul opens chapter 8 with an incredible pronouncement - those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under that continuous, low-lying black cloud. The TNIV may be more familiar: there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Isn’t that good news. No condemnation, not from anyone, not from yourself.
You are now free from sin and death. What the law couldn’t accomplish for you, Christ did. God went all the way for you. In Jesus, God personally took on our condition, so he could set things right with us once for all.
What condemnation do you fight as a Christ-follower? From self? From friends who aren't Christians? From other Christians expecting you to be more or do more?
If my old way of life really was nailed to the Cross with Christ, why does it keep rearing its ugly head? If I am included in Christ's sin-conquering death, why do I still have to fight with sin? Other translations say that I am free from the power of sin, but sometimes it really doesn't feel like it. I know in my head that sin speaks a dead language and means nothing to me, but I still want to listen to it and I still find myself speaking it from time to time.
Questions like these are real to a lot of people...maybe even to you. And if I am totally honest with you, they are real to me sometimes. I don't drift into "big sins" since I became a Christ follower (but I didn't really before either). I don't get wasted on the weekends, I don't contemplate murder, I don't have illicit affairs...those things are pretty easy to stay away from. Is that because sin has no power over me? Maybe.
I do however drift into "little sins" almost daily. I struggle with thinking Christ-like thoughts about people. I struggle with laziness sometimes. I struggle with pride. I struggle with the things that aren't easily seen by others. What's the deal? Did the "power over sin" miss these little ones because it was so focused on the bigger ones?
What have you been taught about the power of sin and your ability to defeat it? Do you see yourself as free from sin and able to say no, no matter what the sin may be? Do you believe that the power won't fully be realized until after we leave this earth for heaven? Do you see yourself as a sinner or a saint?
We believe a person comes into a right relationship with God by His grace, through faith in Jesus Christ.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (TNIV)
On Friday morning, Cameron told me he had written a post for "Salvation by Grace" but got away from the house without publishing the post. He asked me to go online and post it for him. So I did just that...then something happened and I deleted it. Gone. Nowhere to be found. Oops. I'm sure that Cameron's post was probably life-changing for someone and now no one will ever know. Since that happened, I guess he's been tied up, so I wanted to pass along my thoughts on this core belief.
Salvation by Grace was one of the few mantras I remember from my churches growing up. I remember this phrase being thrown around often. Ephesians 2:8-9 was one of the first passages of Scripture I ever memorized. We quoted it before going out and sharing the message of Jesus to people who didn't know it...or at least hadn't embraced it like we had yet. Everybody in my church knew that you were "saved by grace" even if we didn't really know what it meant.
We believe that humanity's relationship with Creator God was severed through disobedience through one man - Adam (Romans 5:12). That's right. The one man created before all men. In Genesis 3, he disobeys God (he sins) and ushers death into our world. This death was not only physical death, but spiritual death as well. His sin separated us from God. Our relationship was not right. We also believe that Jesus came to make that relationship right again. His sacrifice and subsequent resurrection turned everything around. Now, through one man's (Jesus') sacrifice, life would redeemed and humanity could be restored.
So we believe that a person comes into a right relationship with God by His grace. His grace is the giving of His Son so we might have life. His son paid for our sin. His son set things right for us with God. We believe this happens through faith in Jesus Christ - trusting with your life that Jesus is our only way back into a right relationship with God.
How does this belief effect my everyday life? What difference does this make? Not only is our initial relationship reestablished by grace, but it's also sustained by grace as well. I cannot be the husband, the father, the friend, the pastor, the artist that I need to be apart from God's grace in my life. Nothing I do could ever earn this right relationship with God, and nothing I do could ever take this reestablished relationship away. I don't walk on pins and needles wondering if I've done enough good things to get to heaven some day. I don't worry about whether that reaction I had with my kids will reduce the love God has for me. I don't live my life in fear of Father. It's all because of Jesus I'm alive.
What does this belief mean to you? How does it impact your daily life?
