1-4-2020

Good Morning All, 

             Romans 3:28; “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”

    For Christmas, Grandma decided that her 2½ year old grandson needed to get a “Mr. Potatohead.”  (“Mr. Potatohead” has a plastic body shaped like a potato.  You then attach eyes, ears, nose and mouth.)  Since he is in the “twos” he insists on “doing it myself”.  So, as he was working to get an ear inserted to the hole, he was intensely focused on the task.  He held the ear just so and held the potatohead just so and then began to slowly twist each trying to line the pin and the hole up.  He even had his tongue out as he got closer to success.  Eventually, he got the ear in and there were cheers all around.

     As parents and grandparents, we try to impress upon the next generation the need to work hard, to stick to a task, to persevere, to overcome adversity, to succeed on their own.  We, especially we Americans, pride ourselves on the self-made successful person.  We like the “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” stories and we often relay these to our children and grandchildren as heroic events and ones that we would emulate.  I think that sometimes this is why we have trouble understanding that our salvation is completely God’s work.

    God looks at you and then declares you holy because of the sacrifice of Jesus.  Jesus’ death completely paid the debt of our sins; so, we are debt free.  We are free indeed.  We no longer have the burden of keeping the Law.  We no longer have to feel the pangs of guilt when we think of our sin.  We are no longer slaves to the devil; we are free because God has declared us innocent.  We don’t earn it or deserve it.  There is nothing we did to cause this to happen.  This is entirely a gift from a loving God; at no time did we have to stick our tongue out to achieve it.  At no point in time did we have to twist or manipulate things to make it work.  It is ours free and we never had to or ever will have to do anything to receive it.  We only have to use the faith, another of God’s gifts, to trust it.  We only have to cling to God’s promise of free salvation.

    This often brings the question, “so we don’t have to do any good works?”  The answer is no we don’t have to but when you think of this wonderful gift which is given to you; don’t you want to say thank you?  God has told us how to say thank you to him.  It is not offering a bunch of sacrifices to him or giving a lot of money to him; God has no need for this.  Rather God desires that we show our thanks by showing the love that God gives us to others we meet.  It is not a requirement but rather a response.  It is not a law but a reaction.  God freely gives you salvation; celebrate God’s gift to you this and every day.

Father of all mercies, you richly and daily forgive our sins.  You graciously declare us innocent of all the debt we owe.  We give you thanks and praise.  Lead us to express this love in ways that are beneficial to others.  Help us to love as you love us.  Bring about your true peace into this world.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret