DOES HE CARE?

Does He Care?

"Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord." Ephesians 5:10

One of my favorite authors, Dr. Jerry Bridges, is a champion of the gospel. Most of us only think about the gospel for salvation, but Jerry reminds us that the same gospel that saved us (justification) is the gospel that is keeping us (sanctification).

Here are his words from his new devotional, HOLINESS -- DAY BY DAY. The reading I read for today is taken from his book THE DISCIPLINES OF GRACE:

The good news of the gospel is that God's grace is available on our worst days. That's true because Christ fully satisfied the claims of God's justice and fully paid the penalty of a broken law when He died on the cross in our place. Because of that, Paul could write, "He forgave ALL our sins." (Colossians 2:13 NIV)

Does this mean that God no longer cares whether we obey or disobey? Not at all. The Scripture speaks of our grieving the Holy Spirit through our sins (Ephesians 4:30). And Paul prayed that we "may please [God] in every way" (Colossians 1:10 NIV) Clearly, he cares about our conduct and will discipline us when we refuse to repent of conscious sin. But God is no longer our Judge. Through Christ He is now our heavenly Father who disciplines us only out of love and only for our good.

If God's blessing were dependent on our performance, they would be meager indeed. Even our best works are shot through with sin -- with varying degrees of impure motives and lots of imperfect performance.

We're always, to some degree, looking at ourselves, guarding our flanks, protecting our egos. It's because we don't realize the utter depravity of the principle of sin remaining in us and staining everything we do that we entertain any notion of earning God's blessings through our obedience. And because we don't fulling grasp that Jesus paid the penalty for ALL our sins, we despair of God's blessing when we failed to live up even to our own desires to please God.

Your worst days are never so bad that you're beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you're beyond the need of God's grace.

Isn't that a powerful word for this Lord's day! Wow! Thank You, Lord, for this precious truth. -- Bill Welte is President and CEO of America's KESWICK

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 18; Genesis 43-45; Matthew 12:24-50

Great quote: “If you find yourself loving any pleasure better than your prayers, any book better than the Bible, any house better than the house of God, any table better than the Lord’s table, any person better than Christ, any indulgence better than the hope of heaven - take alarm!”
- Thomas Guthrie