I'm a Spiritual Five Year Old

I'm so thankful God called me to repentance around this time five years ago. For most of my life, I was a cultural Christian at best... You know, the ones that check the "Christian" box on surveys that ask your religious affiliation - the one with a lot of talk and not a lot of walk. But, when He called me, I was barely even that. I was a broken fragment of a person, drowning in the muck I had willfully chosen for myself. That putrid stench of sin is not one easily forgotten, but today I can say that My God saves. He can take the ugliest, nastiest, most Jezebel-est of us all and make us clean. He can redeem the poor choices, the broken hearts, the out-of-wedlock pregnancies, the divorces, the willful rebellion and rejection of God in an effort to "find myself" and "express myself"... My God can take it all. And, He has. And, through the blood of a Lamb once slain, he has chosen to remember it no more, and I have been made clean. Glory to God in Heaven, the one Who gives new life to dry bones. The One who says "Rise up and walk"... The one who says, "Follow Me".

I was speaking to a woman recently who was trying to make a case for how our salvation depends on our actions: 

"Why in the world would God have created the Ten Commandments if He didn't expect us to obey them?" 

My answer to her was simple. It was the same answer that somehow escaped me for most of my life as I wandered in a hopeless back and forth effort of trying to please God enough to save me and then getting tired of it all and going my own way.

The simple truth is this:

The sole purpose of the Ten Commandments was to make us aware of God's Holy standard, and to make us even more aware of the fact that we cannot fulfill it.

That's it.

Try as we might, no amount of obedience will save us apart from the the Holy Spirit opening our eyes to our the height, the depth, the breadth of our sinfulness and our need for a Savior. The reality is that even one sin, no matter how mild - even one white lie - is obscene enough in the sight of God to have us banished eternally to hell.

Do you recognize the debt that you have before God? Do you understand that you cannot pay it? Do you comprehend the fact that Jesus did not die FOR our sins, but rather He died COVERED in them, paying the price that we could not pay? 

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. - 1 Peter 2:24

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - 2 Corinthians 5:21

This isn't about having a Savior that can relate to us - though He can - but it is so much more than that. He took the burden of sin that we carry, the debt that we've incurred, the very thing that separates us from our Creator, and He wore it all and endured being separated from the Father so that we can stand blameless and holy before a righteous judge and once again enter into unadulterated communion with the One who gave us life. We may not be promised an easy life, and we will be painstakingly molded into the image of Christ until our dying breath, but on that great day of judgement, we will be welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven as sons and daughters of a righteous King, heirs of the Great Almighty.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. - Romans 8:14-17

If you aren't following Christ, come to Him. The sin that you love so much is the same sin that will devour you whole. We love our sin, because it gives us what we want. But, only temporarily as its appetite grows to demand even our souls. Just like a child who doesn't understand why he can't always have his way, so are we thrashing about in fits of anger if anyone dare touch what we hold so dear. But, so long as you cling to the comforts of this world, you need to understand that you are hanging on to a sinking ship - one where the orchestra is playing so loudly that its passengers don't even know they're dying. See the beauty of sin for the facade that it is. Confess, repent, follow Christ and be done with it.

My prayer today is one of thanksgiving for a loving Savior that was willing to stoop low. When I was out of reach of all those around me, when cutesy religion had lost all flavor, and every hand I held betrayed me, when I lived in fear every day as the consequences of my sin played out around me... God met me there. But, it wasn't free. It cost His Son's very life to repay the eternal debt that I had acquired. And, He is willing to apply that payment for you, too, if you only repent and put your faith in Christ Jesus. There is no other way. Hold fast to a false security of your own inconsistent obedience, or put your hope in a muddled up and watered down gospel, and I fear for you on that day of judgement. Do not be deceived into thinking you know Him simply because you go to church and are familiar with scripture. Even the demons know Him and tremble. God will not be mocked. Nothing short of a total surrender to Him will do.

On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' - Matthew 7:22-23

I praise God for the continual work He is doing in my life, and the lives of my brothers and sisters in Christ. And, I pray today, nearing the fifth anniversary of my salvation, that when God calls out to you who are unsaved, and you're standing there in darkness, neck deep in the consequences of your sin, that you surrender and allow Him to begin a good work in you that will be completed on the day of Christ Jesus. 

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:6-8

To God be the glory.