"The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost." 1 Timothy 1:15
It's hard to see the truth when there is so much mud being thrown about. No, I'm not talking about political ads or anything like that. I say that of the Gospel message, that God sent Jesus into the world to rescue a fallen, sinful humanity, and to restore it to Himself completely. In a very black and white sense, it would seem that people who are rescued by Jesus would become like Jesus, as they would be clothed by His perfection, and that their lives would accurately reflect His own perfect life.
Sadly, our reality in this world is that the sinful nature's clutches will not be released in us until death fulfills its claim on us. That means that we are rescued by Jesus completely, but our lives fail to completely reflect our rescue and our Savior. Sure, we make efforts, but those efforts simply cannot bear their own fruit. And it becomes far too easy to fall back onto comparisons, then.
As God's saints, we may sometimes want to think that our "closeness" to God in Jesus somehow makes us all better in the ways of this world. Sure, there may be some ways in which that actually appears to be the case. We may stop doing some of the outward symptoms of our sin. We may not sleep around, whether with the opposite sex or the same sex. We may not outward pick up the things that belong to our neighbor. We may not pick up a knife or gun and bring our neighbor's life to an end. And yet, the same desires still remain in us that remain in all others in this world.
The Gospel enters lives that are truly messy. And yes, sometimes that means that the effectiveness of the Gospel, at least in the outward sense, may seem to be covered by the mud of the sin which so easily prevails. We cannot see the struggle that goes on in a person in whom the Spirit is working for repentance and salvation. We may see the mud of their sin all too easily. And likewise, sometimes that same mud blinds our own eyes to our own mud and sin, and we may not acknowledge properly that it is present within us, much like in those other mud covered, yet redeemed, sinners.
That's the beauty of the Gospel. It goes where the mud is. It isn't afraid to jump in and go to work there. Sadly, there are far too many times where God's people are afraid to enter that same mud. They sometimes stand content to be at the edge of the mud puddle and toss a little more mud on those wallowing within.
The thing is, the Gospel is indeed messy. It's actually not the Gospel if it's not in the mud. If we were all clean, it wouldn't be God's good news of forgiveness in Jesus, it would be our pat on the back for a job well done. Yes, the Gospel enters our mud and brings the gifts of Jesus to us, and to everyone else within whom that message of Good News lives.
Yes, we try to wipe away our mud, and hope to help others clear some of the mud out of their eyes. In the end, though, all of those efforts don't gain us anything. It takes God sending His Son and His Spirit into the mud to pull us out and wash us off (there's your baptismal picture!). After all, we each, like Paul quoted above, are the chief of sinners, even when we may want to throw mud on those who seem worse than us. But thanks be to God that He pulls all His own out of the mud, whether they consider themselves less muddy or more muddy than others.
It's hard to see the truth when there is so much mud being thrown about. No, I'm not talking about political ads or anything like that. I say that of the Gospel message, that God sent Jesus into the world to rescue a fallen, sinful humanity, and to restore it to Himself completely. In a very black and white sense, it would seem that people who are rescued by Jesus would become like Jesus, as they would be clothed by His perfection, and that their lives would accurately reflect His own perfect life.
Sadly, our reality in this world is that the sinful nature's clutches will not be released in us until death fulfills its claim on us. That means that we are rescued by Jesus completely, but our lives fail to completely reflect our rescue and our Savior. Sure, we make efforts, but those efforts simply cannot bear their own fruit. And it becomes far too easy to fall back onto comparisons, then.
As God's saints, we may sometimes want to think that our "closeness" to God in Jesus somehow makes us all better in the ways of this world. Sure, there may be some ways in which that actually appears to be the case. We may stop doing some of the outward symptoms of our sin. We may not sleep around, whether with the opposite sex or the same sex. We may not outward pick up the things that belong to our neighbor. We may not pick up a knife or gun and bring our neighbor's life to an end. And yet, the same desires still remain in us that remain in all others in this world.
The Gospel enters lives that are truly messy. And yes, sometimes that means that the effectiveness of the Gospel, at least in the outward sense, may seem to be covered by the mud of the sin which so easily prevails. We cannot see the struggle that goes on in a person in whom the Spirit is working for repentance and salvation. We may see the mud of their sin all too easily. And likewise, sometimes that same mud blinds our own eyes to our own mud and sin, and we may not acknowledge properly that it is present within us, much like in those other mud covered, yet redeemed, sinners.
That's the beauty of the Gospel. It goes where the mud is. It isn't afraid to jump in and go to work there. Sadly, there are far too many times where God's people are afraid to enter that same mud. They sometimes stand content to be at the edge of the mud puddle and toss a little more mud on those wallowing within.
The thing is, the Gospel is indeed messy. It's actually not the Gospel if it's not in the mud. If we were all clean, it wouldn't be God's good news of forgiveness in Jesus, it would be our pat on the back for a job well done. Yes, the Gospel enters our mud and brings the gifts of Jesus to us, and to everyone else within whom that message of Good News lives.
Yes, we try to wipe away our mud, and hope to help others clear some of the mud out of their eyes. In the end, though, all of those efforts don't gain us anything. It takes God sending His Son and His Spirit into the mud to pull us out and wash us off (there's your baptismal picture!). After all, we each, like Paul quoted above, are the chief of sinners, even when we may want to throw mud on those who seem worse than us. But thanks be to God that He pulls all His own out of the mud, whether they consider themselves less muddy or more muddy than others.
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