The life-giving arms of love

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NLT) “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.”

“Sin entered the world through one man…and in this way death came to all men, because all have sinned.” (Romans 5:12) As a result of Adam’s fall in the Garden of Eden, we were all born with a sin nature but according to these verses in Ephesians, we don’t have to remain dead in them. Salvation is a gift from God. It’s not something we can earn or an award we can win for the good things we’ve done.

God gave us the ultimate gift of salvation in Christ Jesus, his one and only son. ⁴ “He (Jesus) took our suffering on him and felt our pain for us. We saw his suffering and thought God was punishing him. But he was wounded for the wrong we did; he was crushed for the evil we did. The punishment, which made us well, was given to him, and we are healed because of his wounds.” (Isaiah 53:4-5)

We will never be able to earn salvation by helping the needy, working with children in orphanages, going on trips to help with disaster relief efforts, or even by living a good and moral life. The only way we can receive the gift of Salvation is to accept what Christ did for us all on Calvary. He was beaten, whipped, and nailed to a cross so that he (and he alone) could pay the price for our sin. 

He died so we wouldn’t have to. 

He (Jesus Christ) is worthy of all our praise and worship, for paying our debt and pulling us from sin’s death-grip into his life-giving, arms of love.

Related scripture: Matthew 7:13 – 14; Matthew 11: 28 – 30; John 6:37; Romans 10:13

A "crack" and a "thwack"

One day, as I was making salad for my family to enjoy for lunch I accidentally “sliced” off the tip of my index finger. I knew I'd cut it because of the immediate throbbing pain traveling  through my finger and, of course, the onset of blood. I dropped everything, ran to the sink, turned on the water quickly poking my finger tip into the running flow. This I can tell you was not the right thing to do. The sudden sting of the water hitting the open wound was worse than the pain of the cut itself. As the minutes past the throbbing in my figure increased in intensity, I did everything I knew to stop the bleeding….nothing helped. The cut, although very small, produced incredible discomfort. Weeks later I could still feel the pain whenever the area around the cut is touched.

The cut on my finger reminds me of what happened on that Good Friday all those years ago. Even though the cut was so small, it hurt like the entire finger had been slashed off. I can't even imagine the excruciating pain (both emotionally and physically) Jesus must have felt that day. The pain would all start when two of his disciples, who had spent 3 years of their lives following him, unleashed the first emotional blow. One, Judas, would betray him for personal gain. Then Peter, who just hours earlier boldly professed he would die for Jesus, denied him…not just once but 3 times. 

Can I just tell you if my close friends did this to me, I would have been a puddle of muck….but not Jesus. He saw the bigger picture and had to carry on. His Father's plan had to be accomplished.

That night Jesus faced an unfair trial at the hands of the Jewish and Roman authorities. Emotional pain would turn to physical pain soon after Pilate ordered Jesus to be flogged. 

Crack! 

The prongs at the end of the whip sank deep in the beard ripping out bits and pieces as it was quickly drawn back for another pulverizing blow. Flesh covered arms and legs, that crossed racial, social, and religious boundaries, were torn to shreds with each contemptuous lash. Forty times the whip’s fury left stripe after stripe across Jesus’s back.

I sometimes wonder if Jesus knew that each stripe producing whack he endured would, one day, provide hope and healing for followers to come (Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24).

The suffering doesn't stop with flogging. The face that looked down over the dark expanse of the universe and said “Let there be light” was slapped bloody my mocking guards. A crown of thorns pressed firmly through his hair and into the scalp produced blood droplets that rolled down the face and over the lips of the one who spoke words of life and peace. 

He then picked up the cross he would soon be nailed to and began the journey to Calvary’s hill. Can you even begin to Imagine what he was feeling? He had just been thrashed 40 times with a spike-tipped whip which produced gaping wounds of raw flesh. With each step Jesus fulfilled a purpose.

Horizontal he laid, stretching out one arm and then the next…can you feel the tip of the spike? 

Thwack! 

Mallet head meets spike top thrusting its tip through one wrist.

Thwack!

Then the other. A soldier holds one foot down and moves the other into place over the first. 

Thwack! 

The final spike is set.

Now, nailed to a cross, the beam is shoved upward and comes to its vertical resting place. There, the creator of heaven and earth in human form hangs suspended between his two creations. Outstretched arms that once held the world are now the greatest symbol of love for the creation he breathed life into and formed in his own image. If that wasn’t enough…the spotless and clean became the filthiest of filth…sin.

And why? Why did Jesus do this? 

Because he understood the price of sin and wanted to cancel the debt for all people.

The price of sin? Death. (Romans 6:23) Eternal separation from a holy God. 

Why would Jesus want to pay for our sin? The answer is simple. He loves us and wants us to be with him for eternity. Jesus died a horrendous death so through him (our sin offering) we can be spared sin’s death grip.

John 3:16 - 18 (MSG) “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. 

Romans 5:6 - 8 (MSG) "Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him."

Do you know Jesus? Have you accepted Him as your savior? He died so that you could be forgiven and have eternal life. He doesn't care where you've been or what you've done...all He cares about is where you are headed from this point forward. 

Ask him into your heart today... will you pray with me?

Jesus, I know I am a sinner and have fallen so short. Please come into my heart today and forgive me of my sin. I know that you died for me so that I could spend eternity with you. Place people in my life who will encourage me as I walk with you. Amen

If you have just prayed this prayer... Welcome to the kingdom of God!!! The Bible says you are now a new creation in Christ...the old has gone and the new has come.  It's as if you've never sinned (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Please don't keep this to yourself...  tell a fellow Christian...  get into God's word and begin to grow in your faith.

Lessons from an old box

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NCV) If anyone belongs to Christ, there is a new creation. The old things have gone; everything is made new!

Over the past several weeks I’ve been sifting through boxes of stuff collected during my high school and college years. At first, it was kind of fun to go through and look at some of the pictures of friends, read over old cards and letters. But the more time I spent with the “stuff” in those boxes, the more I saw a person I didn’t even recognize…and that really made me sad. Why had I allowed myself to get as far away from the truth?

It was during those years I fell far away from everything I had been taught in my Christian home and in church. One defining moment, after hearing 5 tiny words, would change “my perspective” on the way I chose to live my life from that point forward. I guess those 5 words weren’t so “tiny” after all. The thought of what was said caused me to spin farther and farther out of control with each passing year until “who I was” became unrecognizable. During that time, I didn’t go to church and I only talked to God when I wanted to “save myself” from getting in a pile of trouble. You know those prayers right? The ones that go something like this… “Oh God please help me and I will NEVER do this again.”

The memories contained in the boxes spoke of the things I’d do to not be defined by the 5 tiny words said that one summer afternoon in my friend’s living room. I sat among the boxes in disbelief wondering “when did I decide what someone else said or thought about me was so important?” Tears fell from my eyes and I thanked God for pulling out of the muck and mire of my old life.

Today, I am a completely different person…and it’s all because of Jesus Christ and His redeeming work on Calvary. When I said “NO” to this world and “YES” to Jesus, I became a new creation in Him. The old me is gone – remembered no more. I have been given a new life, living now under the guidance, prompting and teaching of the Holy Spirit.

Spending a few days in the “boxes of my old life” made me see that Christ has given me new life in every sense of the word…I have a new perspective on how I choose to live my life and whose voice I choose to listen to and respond.

Open the door to your heart...

Romans 10:9-10 (MSG) It is the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Saying the welcoming word to God – “Jesus is Master” - embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Christ from the dead. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!”

After his conversion, Paul desired for the nation of Israel to have salvation...the same salvation he had found in Jesus Christ. He worked so hard and sacrificed much to teach them about Christ. Instead of being stuck in “religious tradition”, Paul wanted to introduce the Jews to the Christ he had bumped into on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-18).

Christ knew everything about Paul. He knew that Paul had spent his much of his life persecuting and killing the Christians (Phil. 3:6). But Christ loved Paul too much to let him stay that way. (He loves us too much for us to stay the way we are too.) God had a plan and purpose for Paul’s life (ours too) and it wasn’t following the law or religious tradition perfectly, it was using his life as an example to tell others about Jesus. After the Damascus road experience Paul embraced Christ and put his complete trust in Him. Paul no longer tried to set things right by being “perfect”, he allowed Christ to come into his heart. He accepted Christ’s gift of grace and received mercy and forgiveness for every sin he committed and would ever commit. That is salvation.

The only road to salvation and eternal life is through Christ. He offers us the same opportunity he gave Paul. Christ will meet us where ever we are…even if it’s at the bottom of the deepest, darkest pit. He will meet you there.

“If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” (Romans 10: 9, 11) NRSV

One thing we must keep in mind is that God is a gentleman; He is not intrusive and will not invade your life. The choice is yours. Christ knocks at the door of your heart.

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and you will eat with me.” (Revelation 3:20 NCV)

Christ desires a personal relationship with us but we have to invite him to be a part. Have you opened the door to your heart, or are you too busy enjoying the things of this world to hear him?