Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Rest in being a child

I want to just write down what the Lord has been speaking to me about.

Recently, a friend of mine handed me a book called "Justification and Regeneration". It explains what happened when we placed our trust in Christ and what it means to be justified and made a new creature. The truths taught in this book have been life changing.

A few years ago I did a in depth study in the bible on the topic of "eternal security". I had always thought that once you were saved you still had the choice to "divorce God", as I would say, and lose your salvation. I got stuck on the passage in Hebrews 6:4-6 for a while as I studied the original Greek words. I tried talking to a couple leaders in my life about it but no one seemed to help my thought process.

As two years went by, God took the time to walk me through this patiently, one step at a time. I didn't know it at the time but in thinking that I could lose my salvation, I lacked peace about who God was to me and who I was in Him. I had an underlining feeling that it was up to me to keep my relationship with God. My understanding of justification was very shallow. I thought "Ya He sees me as "just if I'd never sinned" but I'm still a sinner." I never really thought about that statement being a contradiction. Justification doesn't just mean that on the day of conversion, God declares you innocent until you sin again. It means that He declares you to be innocent once and for all time. Not only that but He creates a whole new person out of you. He changes you from someone who loved being a criminal, so to speak, to someone who loves to obey. He give you a new nature.

One huge piece of this that is changing my whole perspective is that salvation is His work. He wooed me, broke me, killed me, buried me, created a whole new me, and now keeps me until the very end. What choice did I have in this? It was all Him. And since it was all Him, it will continue to be all Him. I can just cease. Cease striving and know that He is GOD. Nothing is up to me. Nothing! I can now change my prayer from, "Lord what can I do today?" to "Father You are doing a work today, I just want to be with You.".

I really feel like the pressure is off. Jesus' yoke is easy and His burden is light.

"Now to Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." Jude 24, 25

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