Blessedly, the freedom path God provides isn’t about us at all, it is about Jesus Christ. His suffering, death, and resurrection bought freedom from condemnation for people like you and me, who do not deserve it.
~~~
Day 24 speaks of choosing life and not death, as per Deuteronomy 30:15-16: "See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess."
Apart from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, obeying God's commands becomes an arduous burden, and we cannot succeed. This is not because God's laws are unreasonable, but because we are, in our flesh, bound to sin. "For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing" (Romans 7:19).
Under the New Covenant brought to us through Jesus Christ, we are saved by believing, cleansed by His blood, and ushered into new life through a gradual process of learning to walk by the Spirit rather than according to the demands of our sinful flesh (see Romans 8:3-4).
By dying for us, He has made it possible for us to die to sin.
But it doesn't happen all at once. In the interim, as we try and fail and try again, we are saved from discouragement because we are loved and accepted apart from anything we do or fail to do. We are no longer working to save ourselves, we are working to become more like the One who has saved us. Our motivation isn't to make ourselves good enough to be accepted, it is to become more like the One who has already made us acceptable.
Children often indulge hero-worship, which is a strong desire to be like someone they deeply admire. We need to be like little children in our admiration for our hero, Jesus Christ. As we draw near to Him, our hearts warm with admiration and awe at His beauty and love. We want to be like Him. The first step in becoming more like Him is to spend more time in His presence.
The more we abide in Him, the more our hearts are ignited to love for Him that fuels obedience to Him. Abiding in Jesus is the New Covenant way of choosing life.
Children often indulge hero-worship, which is a strong desire to be like someone they deeply admire. We need to be like little children in our admiration for our hero, Jesus Christ. As we draw near to Him, our hearts warm with admiration and awe at His beauty and love. We want to be like Him. The first step in becoming more like Him is to spend more time in His presence.
The more we abide in Him, the more our hearts are ignited to love for Him that fuels obedience to Him. Abiding in Jesus is the New Covenant way of choosing life.
~~~
Abiding is very close to remembering. Remember who He is and remember who you are in relation to Him. Beloved, accepted, enfolded, redeemed...safe.
No comments:
Post a Comment