I was talking to a good friend not too long ago and she told me something very interesting. She said that she had to get a new Bible. She said that she couldn't stand looking at the Bible she had written in and highlighted for her whole life any more.
Why?
Because she had highlighted all the wrong passages.
She said that when she was growing up she was so concerned with what she had to do, how good she had to be, and what sins she had to avoid, that the most highlighted, underlined, and noted passages in her Bible were the ones about discipline, avoiding sin, and working out your faith.
She said it was so prominent that when she looked at her Bible her eyes were instantly drawn to all that she had to do to be a good Christian and past all that Christ does to make us who we're made to be.
Wow. That's powerful. I wonder if maybe we should all get new Bibles.
Many of us have grown up so focused on what we have to do that we completely over look what Christ has done for us. We hear about free grace, unfailing love, and freedom and we look for the fine print because nothing is really free. We're so concerned with our performance that we gravitate to our duty to the dismissal of what Christ has truly done.
The fact of the matter is that salvation starts and ends with Jesus. We are the recipients of something free. We do nothing to earn it or deserve it. What we do comes out of what Jesus has done and life change comes from exposure to who Jesus is. The more we try to change the more trapped in our guilt cycle we become. The more we know Jesus the more like him we become.
Maybe we should all start over with a clean bible and empty margins. Maybe we should start highlighting what Jesus has done and what his spirit is doing. Because really nothing we do deserves to be highlighted compared to that.
God works himself out in us as we expose ourselves to him. Our new life has been gifted to us by him. We take it, we don't make it.
Why?
Because she had highlighted all the wrong passages.
She said that when she was growing up she was so concerned with what she had to do, how good she had to be, and what sins she had to avoid, that the most highlighted, underlined, and noted passages in her Bible were the ones about discipline, avoiding sin, and working out your faith.
She said it was so prominent that when she looked at her Bible her eyes were instantly drawn to all that she had to do to be a good Christian and past all that Christ does to make us who we're made to be.
Wow. That's powerful. I wonder if maybe we should all get new Bibles.
Many of us have grown up so focused on what we have to do that we completely over look what Christ has done for us. We hear about free grace, unfailing love, and freedom and we look for the fine print because nothing is really free. We're so concerned with our performance that we gravitate to our duty to the dismissal of what Christ has truly done.
The fact of the matter is that salvation starts and ends with Jesus. We are the recipients of something free. We do nothing to earn it or deserve it. What we do comes out of what Jesus has done and life change comes from exposure to who Jesus is. The more we try to change the more trapped in our guilt cycle we become. The more we know Jesus the more like him we become.
Maybe we should all start over with a clean bible and empty margins. Maybe we should start highlighting what Jesus has done and what his spirit is doing. Because really nothing we do deserves to be highlighted compared to that.
God works himself out in us as we expose ourselves to him. Our new life has been gifted to us by him. We take it, we don't make it.
Ephesians 4:22-24
The Message (MSG)
20-24 But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.
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