I often think about the attributes of God, which are truly mind-blowing. For example, He transcends time while we have the past, present, and future; He is. Thinking about that, it dawned on me that as I have lived life from start to where I am now, each time I sinned against God and man, it was as if someone did something at this moment in time, in the now. I experience all things in the now, but then things fade into the past. So I can get angry about what someone just did to me. Still, with God, every time I lied in the past, cheated, stole, those things I don’t even want to admit I did, or even all the evil things I thought about doing, all are before God in the here and now with Him, they do not fade into the past, as He does not experience reality as I do.
So each day we live, our sins compile before God, and we move toward the end of our lives, a fixed point that is certainly coming for all of us. Then I think about Jesus’ life here. He went through life healing while we killed, all He did, we were doing the opposite, and at the end of His life, He lay down, He was crucified. At the end of His life, He was sinless.
So, the fixed point in time, the cross of Christ, what happened there was He who knew no sin, became sin, ours! His walk here was blameless, ours was full of guilt, and at the cross, He willingly took the blame for everything each of us ever did or thought to justify us by being punished for our sins. In our lives, He tells us to pick up our crosses and follow Him, giving ourselves to Him as He gave Himself for us. In Him, justified by the very God of all creation, by the very righteousness of God! We were not saved by the love and mercy of God at the expense of God’s goodness and righteousness, but through God’s goodness and righteousness, He gives us His love and mercy.
We cannot earn God’s grace and mercy; even trying to earn it, or feeling that God owes us because of something about us, such as how we live or who we are, diminishes it by suggesting it wasn’t enough, so we have to add to it. We are called to come to Him, own our sins before God, and repent of them, asking Him to make us new creatures in Christ by His work in us.
God is the best part of being a Christian; to make claims about being one without actually turning to Him for His soul-saving work in our hearts, we miss out on the reality of Christ and the joy of the Lord. One of the best parts of the gospel of Christ is timelessly the same for all of us, those who have been walking with Him for years, those who just started their lives with Him, those who are on the fence, and those who don’t know, its still the same answer, Jesus is Lord and He died and rose from the dead to save us from our sins before God. It is an experience of divine making, not a theological theory or doctrine; it must be in the heart, not the head.
So each time you've been virtuous, acted as wise as Solomon or done good, that should be attributed to Son of Man. I can't rightly take credit and therefore give it up to the only worthy Savior to believe. Men want to credit themselves where due though our head materialism cannot do justice. This was perhaps a reason the Scripture did not get accredited toward inspired written authors until sometime later, as the divine authorship receives first honor.
As well, they probably did their 'first stone' recompense by introspection, made their 'second tablet' confessions more publicly, and had met with a diversity of gifts. This isn't to say trade-offs are dispensed with, materialism goes out the window, or even premature superstitions about time or whatever are now escapable.
@Of-Ants-and-Imps saidWe own our choices; we can take credit for doing good and bear the blame for doing bad. The trouble is that the price for the bad/evil is eternal, not fleeting in this life. Every sin against God and man will be paid for in full, either by us or Jesus Christ, who took the blame for all of us. This is important because there is a fixed day on which all of this will unfold, with eternal consequences.
So each time you've been virtuous, acted as wise as Solomon or done good, that should be attributed to Son of Man. I can't rightly take credit and therefore give it up to the only worthy Savior to believe. Men want to credit themselves where due though our head materialism cannot do justice. This was perhaps a reason the Scripture did not get accredited toward inspir ...[text shortened]... alism goes out the window, or even premature superstitions about time or whatever are now escapable.
Acts 17
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
@KellyJay saidI myself would sincerely like to get back to toking up instead of drinking beer.
I often think about the attributes of God, which are truly mind-blowing. For example, He transcends time while we have the past, present, and future; He is. Thinking about that, it dawned on me that as I have lived life from start to where I am now, each time I sinned against God and man, it was as if someone did something at this moment in time, in the now. I experience ...[text shortened]... ience of divine making, not a theological theory or doctrine; it must be in the heart, not the head.