There are many God dependent brothers and sisters in the faith that are calling us back to the Gospel and reminding us of the Gospel. These dear ones give testimony to the fact that they are preaching the Gospel to themselves; others call it rehearsing the Gospel. Recently I have had the opportunity of reminding some young people from Christian households about the Gospel both with my own words and in presenting a short presentation from a preacher who is sometimes affectionately called, "Smarty Pants." It has crossed my mind that one of the great ways to preach to myself is through writing and perhaps some of those dear people who take time to read my blog might enjoy a reminder as well.
The apostle Paul who wrote a good percentage of the New Testament said in essence, "Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel." (1st Corinthians 9;16) Earlier in this same letter Paul states that he decided to know nothing among the Corinthians except Christ and Him Crucified. (1st Corinthians 2;2) In Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, he talks about the gospel in terms of reconciliation. Before I can even get to that, I have to ask myself a couple of questions:
What do I believe about man?
What do I believe about God?
What do I believe about God relating to man?
What do I believe about man relating to God?
These are some of the big questions about life. To assert anything about reconciliation, I first must state briefly what I believe about each of these things in regards to reconciliation. (To answer in there entirety would take several blog posts.)
What do I believe about man?
I believe that man is inherently sinful and in need of God's grace and forgiveness.
What do I believe about God?
God is all powerful, all knowing, perfectly just and altogether loving. He is the Redeemer and Restorer of all things.
What do I believe about God relating to man?
As our Creator, God is a Loving Father, the sun shines and the rain falls abundantly upon the just and the unjust. As our Father, He sent His Son through whom He reconciled us to himself, making us new creations, and adopting us as His Beloved Children.
What do I believe about man relating to God?
There are so many ways to describe this incredible relationship. Finite man in relationship with an Infinite God seems most unlikely, a Holy God relating to sinful people. God is incredibly merciful. Gaining an understanding that it is only through Jesus Christ who is God that we have a way to the Father. The one thought that keeps coming back to me when I think about man relating to God is He is the Potter and we are the clay. In a recent video by Francis Chan he says in light of this thought from chapter 9 of Romans, "it is like I am a piece of clay trying to explain to other pieces of clay what the Potter is like, none of us can claim to be experts about the Potter." It is a humbling place to be. Jesus says, unless you become like this little child you can not enter the kingdom of heaven. So, as a daughter of the Living God, I am to trust him. This trusting needs to be one of the outstanding characteristics to my relationship with God.
God has reconciled us to himself through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. I am a sinner who has been saved by grace through faith and I didn't do anything to add to grace because that would just cancel it out. Jesus Christ lived the perfect life that I could never live, died the perfect death that I should have died, He shed his blood for my sins and then HE conquered death by rising from the grave. As the old hymn writer wrote Jesus paid it ALL, all to Him I owe sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
Even though I am his daughter and have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, securing my inheritance, I am still walking around in the flesh, that is my sin nature, and I still sin. I am daily in need of His grace, His mercy and His forgiveness. If I wasn't in need of being forgiven regularly then I would not need to hear the Gospel but one time on that day that I was reconciled to my Father in Heaven. Jesus did indeed save me once, I have been justified. The beauty of the Gospel is that it is also for my ongoing sanctification. It is the Righteousness of Christ that has given me access to our Holy and Heavenly Father. Indeed, I want the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be a part of my daily "bread" to live in the Light of the Truth and to know how GREAT the Father has lavished His Love upon us.
"God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2Corinthians 5;21
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