Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live,but Christ who lives in me…..
Gal 2:20b……And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
This amazing scripture boldly reverberates and declares as a herald from the throne room of heaven. The other old me is dead; there is a new me who lives by faith.
We are being changed and transformed daily into His likeness; from the inside out.
I am so taken by the metamorphosis brought about by the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of Grace; that has captured our souls. It doesn’t matter how many times we reiterate this amazing truth, how many times we repeat it; how many times we write about it, sing it, shout it; (do I hear and Amen ), each time I hear the undiluted truth of the gospel, I realize how blessed I am, how amazing is Gods Grace.
When we consider or ponder upon this, we would have to admit, that the truth is, we are still trying to wrap our head around, this revelatory gift of grace; that we need, to hear it’s message over and over and over again. Not simply so that we can make cranial sense out of it, but that we allow the deep work that is needed to penetrate our very core and every living fibre of our body and soul; of the goodness of God.
Our salvation is often, way to simply described “as my sins are forgiven”. Moving on, it’s because we haven’t plumbed the depths of this eternal life changing truth. Hmmmm….., “my sins are forgiven”, that is a sort of the semi truth, sins are not forgiven but people are, our sins had to be punished. Jesus paid it all, he took the punishment of our sins upon himself, hence our sin punishment became His and we are forgiven.
To take hold of this simple but deep truth it shifts the gratitude from a psychological thought, an ideal, to a personal living reality. “I have been forgiven”. This is not an abstract idea. My sins are forgiven, so I can go out and sin again; no, It becomes more personal. When we realize, Jesus took my place, He was punished for my sins and I am eternally forgiven.
We are the righteousness of God, I am in right standing with God. Grace is more than the unmerited, unearned favour of God. Grace is the fullness of His pleasure in all His extravagance upon us.
A defining truth is, “why would we not want to be changed?”. We need to gain the insight of this process. It is a good one, embrace it, take hold of it, run with it and allow his grace upon grace upon grace ( John 1:16) to transform us.
We need the fortitude of Martin Luther, who in the face of death said ; I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen
Let us be bold and live life so freely given to us by faith in Jesus Christ.