I asked “Do we believe in a gospel that allows us to face the worst about ourselves, our past and our future?”
But what about now?
Many of us struggle with now, so, yes, we also need a gospel that allows us to face ourselves now. We need to realize God’s sufficiency in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and we need to realize God’s joy and very solid intent that we will be what he has determined we will be.
The craftsman paid an extreme price to redeem us from the garbage heap. He saw little specks and reflections of his image, his handiwork and he bought what was already his so he could restore it better than before.
If you have trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sins and received his gift of eternal life, then this is what is going on in your life, right now, at this moment. The Master Craftsman, Creator and Redeemer, is restoring you to himself.
We have all admired someone’s excellent work and were so impressed – Wow! Well, friend, God is doing “Wow!” work in your life right now, today, at this moment. Yes, even in your dark moments the Master is at work. He says it to be so.
Romans 8.26-39 (MSG)
26-28Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
29-30God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
31-39So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for uswho was raised to life for us!is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.’
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothingnothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkableabsolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
. . .the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
WOW!
