Dear Friend,
On Sunday I walked out of church with an armful of Christmas gifts.
They were personally hand delivered by some of our own members. If you asked me
why I deserved to them, I would be hard pressed to tell you, for did I
really merit that unrivaled gift of Joan Steidl’s shortbread cookies? No, but I
am glad they arrived along with other gifts of love.
Sometimes gifts are hard to receive because we know we don’t
deserve them. And with their arrival, there surfaces that question within-
"what can I do to pay these gifts back?" But Tom, they are simply
expressions of love, and there is no need to feel like have to pay them back.
This is the same feeling a lot of us experience when we hear the
good news of the gospel, that salvation is a free gift that is neither earned nor
deserved. When we hear the preacher proclaim ‘"that it is by grace that
you have been saved through faith, and it is a gift of God, and not of
works lest anyone should boast, (Eph. 4:8-9) we ask “What’s the
catch? What do I need to do to deserve it?"
I find this to be one of the hardest truths for people to accept.
How can it be that heaven is a free gif, and that is not something you can earn
or deserve. Grace is a hard concept to understand, and harder to accept.
One day Jesus was asked “what must we do to do the works God
requires?” John 6:28. And Jesus replied, “This is the work of God, that you
believe on Him whom he hath sent.” John 6:29.
If you want to experience abundant and eternal life, if you want
to know love like you have never known it before, if you want to
experience forgiveness that erases every embarrassing sin from your past,
all you have to do is to "believe on Him whom he hath sent."
That sounds just too good to be true. Yes, and it sounded too good
to be true for that first century Jew who was living under the bondage of the
law. They wanted to add an “and” to their faith. It is Christ and keeping
the law, "and" being holy, "and" never missing church,
"and" reading my bible "and"…There is no end to the
”ands” they wanted to add when it came to seeking their salvation.
For the last few weeks, I have been studying the book of
Galatians, and if anyone has a question about whether there is an “and” that
must be added to our faith, reading this book will dispel it.
Paul writes, “We who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners
know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus
Christ. So, we to, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified
by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law
no one will be justified” (Gal 2:15-16).
No one will be made right and acceptable to God by anything other
than faith in Jesus.
But is it really that simple? Is all I have to do is to simply
believe that Jesus died for my sins and, as Corrie Ten Boom was fond of saying,
“He has buried my sins in the deepest part of the ocean and put up a sign that
says no fishing.” The answer is yes. It is as simple as ABC. “Accept” that
Jesus died for your sins, “Believe” that God raised Him from the dead, and
“Confess” Jesus Christ is Lord.
But there is one catch, for as E. Stanley Jones writes “Grace
binds you with far stronger cords than the cords of duty or obligation can bind
you. Grace is free, but when you take it, you are bound forever to the Giver
and bound to catch the spirit of the Giver. Like produces like. Grace makes you
gracious, The Giver makes you give.”
But is it worth it? Just ask anyone who has received it, and they
will shout a resounding, Amen!
Yours in faith,
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