REAL LIFE! – Believe Series: Week Seven

The Salvation of Man!

The Psalmist writes in Psalms 8:4, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” Why would God choose to save us from our sins, from our rebellion towards Him? It truly baffles me as a Believer!

If that does not cause you to be grateful, think of what the Apostle Paul states in Romans 5:8 (ESV), “But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Who does that? “While we were still sinners…” That is the beauty and grace of God. He did not wait for us to get things together. He did not wait until we were worthy. He just loved us. Even in our sin, Jesus paid the penalty for that sin. He became the sacrifice that we could not be.

The outpourings or application to this doctrine are many and we could spend years and years talking about them, but in this blog I will point out just a couple ways of how this doctrine impacts our daily relationships with people. Yet before I do that, let me make one point about Jesus.

• Only Jesus is perfect!

This is because as we strive to be like Christ and emulate Him, we are not going to be perfect in everything we do and neither is anyone else. Therefore, even as Believers, we are going to fail. We are going to make mistakes. We are going to be unloving some days in our relationships. This is not to give us permission to be ungodly, rather it is to help us extend grace to others knowing they are not perfect and that they are in need of God’s saving grace just as we are. Having this thought can keep us from playing the role of the victim. Anyways, back to how this doctrine impacts our relationships:

#1 No fear!

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”

1 John 4:18 (ESV)

Our salvation in Christ is final.  No one can take that from us. It is a “perfect love”. Knowing that we are valued by God and will always be secure in Him, we can then begin to look at our life by asking ourselves the question of where am I falling short, what are my dysfunctions, what is my part in this relational issue?

As human beings, when we have relational issues, we are afraid to look inward and ask:

• What is my part?
• Why am I so angry?
• What am I afraid of happening?

When we understand that God loves us and our self-worth is found in Him and no one can take that from us, we can look at our dysfunction. And let me tell ya, when we have relational disputes, you cannot change the other person, but you can look inward and change your response!

#2 Don’t wait!

Just as God did not wait for us to change in sending Jesus to be the sacrifice for our sins, we should also not wait to change! What does this mean? Don’t wait for the other person to change in order for you to correct your issues! We are to change because God is calling us to do so. If we only do something in response to another then we are placing our trust and hope in another person rather than God. They call that codependency.

When we evaluate our life and change, it does not just benefit another person, it benefits us. I wonder if we as human beings know how we need to change some days and yet are just unwilling to do so.

“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

James 4:17 (ESV)

When we know what we should do, don’t wait, don’t withhold it. Why? Because you are seeking to please God!