Accepting His Gift
In Matthew 5:20 Jesus said, For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus said, I haven’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Jesus called his true followers to a higher standard… Jesus Christ himself is the standard for he is the word of God made manifest. Jesus said, the self righteousness of the Pharisees is not the kind of righteousness required to approach a holy God. To approach God’s throne of grace, reqauires repentance…. to turn from ourselves and unto the Lord.
In the following verses Jesus said six times, you have heard it said…. but I say unto you. The Pharisees taught that in their own performance and in their own actions they were justified and righteous… They thought that the tassels on their robes indicated that they were more spiritual than others.
Sin is missing the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Without the sin nature that we inherited from Adam’s original sin, there would be no need for reconciliation, redemption, and salvation…. there would be no need for Jesus Christ who became perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf. What shall wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. O blessed is the flow that makes me white as snow… No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus!
The message of salvation is not politically correct. The “PC Police” will accuse Christians of “intolerance.” However, God’s way of salvation though his son Jesus Christ is the exclusive way. He is the narrow gate and the narrow way that leads to repentance unto salvation. If there were any other way to justify and make righteous those born in sin, why would God have offered up his beloved only begotten son? Jesus Christ’s innocent blood is the just payment to balance God’s scale of justice in exchange for our guilty blood. For in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
When Jesus called disciples to follow him, he gave them unilateral terms that most people were not willing to follow. He said, unless you forsake mother and father and sister and brother, you cannot follow me. Following Jesus is like getting married…. it means to forsake all others to live with the one with whom and to whom you have committed your life.
Christianity persistently and constantly shows us that a life of vigorous self denial is the path to surrender our own wills to his will… to be submitted to our Lord Jesus Christ. Christianity is a willing compliance and complete acquiescence to him who gave his life so that we can live in the newness of life.
To know thy enemy is to know thyself. I have found the enemy and he is me. In my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I’m not a sinner because I sin, but I sin because I’m a sinner… it is the nature I inherited from Adam’s fall. I cannot help but sin because in my flesh there is none good, no not one. In my flesh there is pride and self centeredness. The devil tempts me to sin and then accuses me when I do. He tricks me into this viscous circle of degradatation, depraviton, disgust and self destruction. This viscous cycle separates my heart from God’s heart… so that I cannot do the things I woulda, shoulda and coulda done. It’s these “subjunctive moods” of life that separates my heart from God’s heart. The greatest sins are sins of omission…. things I should have and could have done but didn’t. The first and great sin is counter to the first and great commandment… The greatest sin is not loving God above all. My sin hardens my heart by loving myself more than I love God. Sin is disobedient, ungrateful, brutal, conceited and self serving self gratification…. sin focuses on myself and makes me become a victim of my own selfish lustful heart.
What shall wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Only Jesus Christ has the power to overcome sin. The solution to sin is to love God above all… for love covers a multitude of sins. Who loved whom? He loved us first… not because of who we are but because of who He is. Unconditional love is the nature of God himself. In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly… We could not love God unless he first loved us.
It’s not the wrath of God but the goodness of God that calls a man to repentance. Jesus Christ did not come to judge the world guilty of sin. He came not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved.
In order to approach a holy God, we must approach his throne of grace on his terms not ours. Salvation is a gift, but acceptance of his gift is according to his terms… How do we accept his gift? Accepting His gift is according to his terms of salvation in Romans 10:9….confessing that Jesus is Lord and believing in our hearts that God has raised him from the dead.
Sin separates our hearts from God’s heart. Repentance returns our heart back to God… As David prayed, search my heart O God and see if there is any evil thing in me.
For there is no peace without the Prince of Peace. Peace reconciles our heart with God’s heart, making of Twain, one new Nam… for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
When we approach his thone of Grace by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, then we can rejoice with the angels who proclaimed the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will to men!
That we may praise God together in thanksgiving for his gracious gift of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
