I love conversion stories! In my Christian tradition we often call this a person’s “Testimony.” When a person tells the story of an experience of the grace of God, I’m moved. What joy it is to hear about - violent people who become peacemakers,
hopeless people who find new life,
addicts who learn to live in sobriety,
loveless people who discover the transformative love of the Father.
All of those stories illustrate the key principle of a passage in 2 Corinthians 5:17. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.”
When God’s Spirit touches the human heart and there is a response of faith, something real and wonderful happens. A whole new way of life becomes possible. The assurance of eternity with God in Heaven is written on the heart of that one who comes to Christ Jesus.
Have you been ‘saved?’
Paul, in his letter to the Romans, writes of the predicament of humanity in chapters 1 to 3.
Sin came into the world, separating us from God. As a result of sin, death, both spiritual and physical, was the lot of Adam’s children, including you and me. The famed verse says that "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23, NIV)
But, through faith, we can receive a gift that changes everything. Romans uses three words to describe what it means to be ‘saved.’
We are justified. (Romans 3:24 “We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”)
In the court of Heaven, we were indicted and bound to be condemned at the Judgment. But, when we believe and receive Christ, God declares us ‘not guilty,’ not because we are deserving, but because Jesus extends grace to us. It’s more than a pardon. We are released from all guilt!
We are redeemed. (Romans 3:24 “We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”)
In the world in which Paul lived people were sold into servitude to settle debts! It was a terrible thing. However, there could be redemption! If family and/or friends put together enough resources to pay off the debt, the person enslaved was redeemed, set free. You and I, in our natural state, are slaves of sin, but there is a Redeemer, Jesus, God’s own Son. Jesus tells us of His mission to pay the ransom for our freedom. (Mark 10:45) “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Our love for Him is such that we become servants of God, living to please Him. As Paul says “You were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:20)
We are given the gift of righteousness. "Now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, … God presented him (Jesus) as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” (Romans 3:25, NIV)
Paul has in mind here the Jewish rituals of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. In the Holiest of Holy places, the Ark of the Covenant was kept. the mercy seat that was the lid of that box that contained the 10 Commandments. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest carried blood for an offering on behalf of the people that satisfied the holy demands of God.
A system of sacrifices turned away God’s wrath from the sinner. Shocked at that language?
Perhaps that is because our concept of God is so impoverished. He is a loving Father, the glorious Creator, and the Judge of all the earth. We are, “by nature objects of wrath,’ except that God, mysteriously and wondrously, offered His own Son as the final sacrifice for sin, once for all time.
Yes, those are hard concepts for us, but we must go beyond a superficial and emotion-based grasp of the amazing gift of God. When our minds are filled with the wonder of salvation – that we are justified, that we are redeemed, that God has made us right at great cost – there is an unshakeable assurance that fills our mind and heart, compelling us to joy and faithful love.
Have you
been ‘saved?’ Trust Christ Jesus with your life
and accept the offer of forgiveness and renewal … and salvation is the gift He
gives.
Here is a word from the Word. Oh, may the promise of God that saves us from the human predicament cause us to sing today.
"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better." (Ephesians 1:13-17, NIV) Amen
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Video at https://www.youtube.com/@JerScott55
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