traitor

Gripped by Grace

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ Leave a comment

What does it look like to be gripped by grace? According to the book of Philippians, chapter two, it begins with thinking of yourself less and thinking of others with more honor. Jesus didn’t hog his rightful place in heaven with God. Instead he left heaven willingly and came to earth as a servant and to die as a criminal. Jesus rejected the honors right, and poured himself out for wicked, selfish and rebellious people who hated him.

What does this tell you?  That the greatest communication about God is being a servant. Jesus spent his capital for the sake of his enemies, men and women who should have been his friends, but instead were traitors. He was the ultimate promiscuous giver of his grace, his life and his death.

Without him, we’d continue in our sins and be stranded without hope.

With him, we are made new in his death, burial and resurrection. We are the only people on earth with hope and a future.

Tell somebody!

Sin Boldly

~ godisnotlikeyou ~ 2 Comments

Martin Luther said,

“God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for He is victorious over sin, death, and the world.”

Christ is for sinners, for people like you and me who have no appetite for God, who prefer ourselves over any other being in the universe, who have a real inclination toward evil, who are rebels, traitors, willful deviants, and who do not want to change. Those are the people Christ goes after.

This predicament is not only in an individual life but it’s universal in scope. Only sinners live on this planet. There are no other kinds of people. No matter what country people live in, or what culture they belong to, their ultimate need is not psychological or emotional, political or economic, or even their alienation from one another. Their true need is to be delivered from God’s judgment and curse. And they are going to be judged on the merits of their own righteousness–or lack thereof–or the righteousness of Another.

This is what makes Christ so relevant to every generation, every culture, and every race.