Don't Leave Your Gift Laying In The Yard

My Utmost For His Highest

In Him we have…the forgiveness of sins… —Ephesians 1:7

“Beware of the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God: God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That thought, based solely on emotion, cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament. The only basis on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ. To base our forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is through the Cross of Christ. […] Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary. We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our sanctification in simple faith, and then forget the enormous cost to God that made all of this ours.[…] Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is small. Sanctification is simply the wonderful expression or evidence of the forgiveness of sins in a human life. But the thing that awakens the deepest fountain of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven his sin. Paul never got away from this. Once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God.” CHAMBERS

The point here is that we must be careful not to make the Cross a small thing and make our feeling good about ourselves a big thing.  No one likes to feel guilty.  Paul asked the question “should we sin so that grace can abound?” (Romans 6:1)  The more aware we are of the great cost of our salvation, the more we will want to draw nearer to the One who granted it, God, and to identify with the One who paid it, Jesus.  And the nearer we draw  to God, the more we will be aware of our true condition and desperate need for a Savior.  How can we be content with our old, sinful nature in the light of our new nature in Christ?  Imagine a child receives an expensive gift for Christmas.  The gift is fragile.  On your way to the car, you notice the gift laying in the yard in the rain.  Because of the neglect, you realize that the gift you have given was not considered significant by the one who received it.  That is how it is when we are content with sin.

I am not suggesting that because you struggle with sin, that you are neglectful.  I am saying, when we stop struggling with sin .. when we are no longer bothered by its presence on our lives, it is because we have become neglectful and ungrateful.  Paul encourages us in Romans 12:2 to not be conformed to this world but be transformed.  Why did he need to do that?  Because it is a problem .. it is the tendency of the flesh.  Things do not naturally get better.  Look at our environment .. look at the chaos in the world.  Why don’t things just get better as the years go by?  The answer is the Fall in the Garden. This world cannot get better on its own, it needs a Savior, Jesus.  2 Corinthians 5:17 “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things are passed away, all things are becoming new.”  Don’t be content with your old nature … Never be satisfied with where you are spiritually.  ELGIN

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Charley Elgin