Forgiveness
White As Snow
Isaiah 1:18
I dont know what the weather has been like where you live,
after all, the Weekly Thot goes around the world. But where I live we just
experienced an ice storm. Sleet fell from the sky for hours covering everything
in a frosty white. I came home on Friday and cleared my driveway of at least 2
inches of ice. I woke on Saturday and did the same. Then came Sunday and it was
time to dig out the mailbox so the letter carrier could deliver our bills and
important mass mailing stuff. But with all of the aggravation it caused it left
the countryside a beautiful white. As my wife and I drove home we remarked on
the beauty God had given us. Both of us were thinking of the same verse of
Scripture, Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD. Though your sins
are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as
crimson, they shall be like wool. (Isaiah 1:18)
It was Abraham Lincoln who said, "God must have loved the common people, since
He made so many of them." I would modify that to say, "God must have loved the
common people, since He made the way of salvation plain enough to be grasped by
all"--yes, even me.
One need not have a high IQ to qualify for God's favor. Nor does experiencing
salvation depend on a person's ability to understand a complex philosophical
presentation of religious truth. If that were necessary, few could be saved!
Receiving salvation is a matter of faith. It's believing God and accepting His
Word about His Son Jesus Christ, His payment for our sins through His death on
the cross, and His resurrection. It's trusting Him completely for salvation.
John 1:12 tells us, "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to
become children of God, to those who believe in His name."
The Bible says that the gospel "is the power of God to salvation for everyone
who believes" (Rom. 1:16). Whether educated or uneducated, knowledgeable or
ignorant, anyone can believe. No one will be able to stand before God and say,
"I'm not saved because I couldn't understand the gospel." The way has been made
plain.
To learn more about God's great and free forgiveness
click here.
Good News
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. 1 Timothy 1:15
A Christian counselor was troubled by this line in her church's statement of
faith: "We deserve God's condemnation." She said she often talks with clients
who are so beaten down with self-condemnation that they need to hear, "You
deserve God's love."
I commend that therapist for her empathy, but I believe her thinking is subtly
flawed. The good news of Christ is not that we deserve God's love. The good news
is that God sees us in all our sin and unworthiness, yet He loves us so much
that He has provided for our complete forgiveness and acceptance.
The apostle Paul said that he had persecuted believers "ignorantly in unbelief
(1 Timothy 1:13). Yet this was not an excuse. He accepted responsibility for his
unbelief, referring to himself as "formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an
insolent man." Although he saw himself as the "chief of sinners (v.15), he
wasn't shackled by the guilt of past sins. His primary emphasis was on the
Lord's marvelous grace that freed him from a debilitating sense of unworthiness.
It's true that "we deserve God's condemnation," but it's also true that "Jesus
came into the world to save sinners" (v.15). That's good news for all of us, no
matter what we have done!
Remember, the one who receives Jesus will never receive God's condemnation. As
Wesley the hymn writer put it -
No condemnation now I dread,
I am my Lord's and He is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine.