dougs digs

once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right

4.27.2005

Sacrificial Gifts



Christianity is often thought of as a set of principles that people struggle to follow, earning their way into God's favor with self-denial and obedience. But this is looking at God as we might look at a gumball machine or a bank. We cannot earn our way to whatever prize we have our eye on - even if the prize we seek is God Himself. The shiny quarters we proudly offer belong, in fact, to Him.

Indeed, every faculty we have - our ability to think or move or praise Him - is given to us by God Himself. As the Apostle Paul declared among the idols of Mars Hill, "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else" (Acts 17:24-25).

We cannot earn our way into his presence; we cannot give him anything that is not in a sense already his own. "It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: 'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord'" (1 Corinthians 1:30-31). The debt, which was ours, has been paid. The tattered gifts of faith and obedience we offer Him were purchased with his blood. As Modern hymnist Stuart Townend has written,

How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure!
How great the pain of searing loss; the Father turns His face away,
As wounds which mar the Chosen One ring many sons to glory.

|| doug, 00:40

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