“Have you ever paid for someone’s meal, only to have the person insist on repaying you? A bit of resistance is natural, even polite. But if the person you are trying to bless out of the goodness of your heart absolutely refuses to take your gift, you actually feel dishonored and snubbed. Some people think that when they receive God’s grace to cover their sins, they are taking advantage of him. They know they were saved by grace initially, but they feel as though every new sin is another nail in Jesus’s hands. When they mess up and have to ask for forgiveness, they do it with the feeling that they are frustrating God or insulting his generosity. I respect their sincerity and work ethic, but they are dead wrong. Grace wasn’t free for Jesus. It cost him everything. That is precisely why we should receive it freely. The most insulting thing we could do is reject this costly gift and say, “No thanks, God, I got this.” Please don’t tell me Jesus was beaten and mutilated and tortured so we could try to save ourselves through our paltry good deeds. Don’t cheapen Jesus’s sacrifice by trying to pay him back. When we receive and enjoy his grace, we aren’t bothering God. Far from it. That’s how he likes it. In God’s mind, Jesus’s death on the cross solved the sin problem, and now we can get back to the abundant life God originally created for us. I find the more I get to know Jesus and his goodness, the more I want to live in a way that pleases him. It’s that simple.” Excerpt From: Smith, Judah. “Jesus Is.”
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 00:42:20 +0000
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