Christian Apologist Ravi Zacharias recently said, "Jesus did not come into this world to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive."
This really changes our mandate. If we are simply bad people hoping to be made good, we'll never really succeed due to our propensity to be bad. Yet, if once we, as dead people, are made alive (Jonathan Edwards may say, "Quickened") in the person of the Eternal God, how can we once again die?
If you view God as simply chastising you for being bad, wishing He could make you just good enough, I hope you'll reconsider Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death. BUT the gift of God is eternal life."
2 comments:
Just a thought about the being made good vs quickening...as the book of James points out, You are right that God does not make us good. We have free will. But, when we choose to be made alive in His Son, we then chose to grow in our goodness by living for Him. After all, there is a difference between just being alive and being alive, growing, and maturing. Continue in your growth! You and your family are in my prayers!
Jamie - That's right. To expound further on James, it was his insistance that our good deeds are the natural outflow of our growth and maturation in Christ.
The fact that we are born natural enemies of God forces a choice: live to die or die to live. If we receive the gift Christ offers to us, we will die to live ("I am crucified with Christ, therefore I no longer live, but he lives within me.") If we reject the gift, we live to die. ("The wages of sin is death.")
I commend your insight. I guess your ECS foundation is supporting you!
Thanks for your prayers. You and Wes are in my prayers - especially in light of his dangerous work (for which we offer you and him our thanks!).
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