Only Through The Work Of Jesus
Dear Champions,
The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast.
The essence of sin is not breaking the rules. It is taking a good thing and making it more important than God. It's taking good things and living for them and being defined by them. That's the reason why in the Ten Commandments the first commandment, the primary commandment, is to have no other gods before me. Everything else, all of the other, the cheating, the lying, the murdering, the stealing, and all of that awful stuff, it all flows out of the first one. That's commandments 2 through 10.
Romans 3:10 says, "No one is righteous, not even one; no one seeks for God." There are bad people who mug you and cheat and hurt people, and they, of course, are not looking for God. But here's what's scary about good and religious people. They think that they are looking for God, but they're not. They are not looking for a God of grace. They are looking for a god that they can control through their good works.
Good people and bad people are both self-savers. They both are taking things and making them into idols. It's just that some idols lead you to be obedient to the law of God, and some idols lead you to be disobedient to the law of God. But all the way across the board, no one is righteous, not even one; no one is seeking God, no one! Good people think they are seeking God, but they're not. They aren't seeking the God of grace. They are seeking a god that they can control through their good works, a god who owes them. That's the reason why if you are a Christian, grace has come in and grabbed a hold of you and shown you something that you weren't looking for. It has shown you that you can only be saved through the work of Jesus and not your own works.
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining
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