Do you take your salvation for granted? I do. I have for many years. I heard all the stories growing up. I have never questioned God's existence or that He sent His son to die in my place, for my sins. I am so desensitized by my play-like, superficial faith. Most of the time, I can't see what the TRUE, transforming Jesus dying the world's worst death (instead of me getting what I deserve) means for my life today.
I talk to many people who want to assume someone's salvation because they have been in church for years, they had a "good upbringing" or because they have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ many times over. However, the transforming power of God's grace does more than give us something to talk about, more than a moral way to live life; it does more than give us a cultural nameplate, more than a retro hub to commune with people we choose to be seen with. In my cultural bubble, the question "What church do you go to?" comes with a stereotype box of whether or not you are okay with tattoos, with drinking, with certain authors or with a certain kind of music MORE THAN, "Do you believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His saving grace? Is He changing your life?"
In 1 John 2:28, 3:1, John says, "And now, little children abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming... See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him."
My question is simply this, who do you know better: the world or Jesus? Are you "abiding in Him"? I'll admit my answer to this question often varies. But it's His gripping love that brings me back, time and time and time and time again. We should always strive to DO what God has called us to DO (James 1), but we so often think knowing Him means having the answers from the Bible or attending our weekly groups or listening to the right kind of music. This is SO NOT what "knowing Him" necessarily means.
"Fierce love slips into Bethlehem, virtually unnoticed, as tears stream down the Virgin's face. It is heard in the baby's whimper as he's placed in the barren feeding trough. Then, at night, it secrets the family away, down to the isolation of despised Egypt, while a vicious despot slaughters toddlers. The glow of his fierce love grows on through the seemingly endless years of mundane family life in Nazareth. For a while the whispers about Mary die down, and then the Son explodes onto the scene.... The embodiment of the Father's love overturns the commercial interests of the religious, commands hatred of one's own family, blesses children and welcomes the demon-possessed." **
I sympathize with those in the categories of the overturned. My flesh feeds off the stuff He came to destroy! How utterly humiliating... this is why all glory is due to Him alone. Are we striving to make our churches look a certain way or are we striving to know and cultivate our love for the true Jesus? Are we striving to make our family members behave a certain way or are we longing for everyone to experience God's love that He poured out on the cross? Are we striving to get the next promotion at work or are we striving to make His name known alone?
I'm often striving towards my own end, not to God's. But then... I look up and I'm standing in the HUGE shadow of a mighty, mighty cross. Praise be to God alone.
Isaiah 55:12-13
"For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."
**Elyse Fitzpatrick, "Comforts from the Cross" (pg. 76)
