I need to share this thought with you.
I am a sinful, broken man who has been saved by the blood of the Lamb.
There is nothing I can do to make this salvation any better, no action or accomplishment I can offer to add to what has already been done. In humility, I accept this perfect salvation as a gift. It was done for me, not by me.
It resonates through me that I, unworthy as I am, have been given LIFE – but am no better than anyone else. There is no gold star on my forehead. No certificate hanging on my wall. Nothing to say that I am anything but equal with every living person on this planet.
Salvation did not put me to the head of the class. I did not get a parking pass either.
We are all equal in the eyes of God.
What salvation offers is access to the throne room, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and an advocate who will not leave, ever. God with Us.
And I find this to be a beautiful thing. Especially because of our natural tendency to follow selfishly sinful ways, ideas, and bad choices.
Again, count me in as a former member of the ‘Darkened Lens Club’. Sinful through and through.
Jesus opened a door, and I gave Him my heart, mind, and soul. To be sure, I still sin. If I say I am without sin, then I am a liar. But what’s different, and what humbles me the most, is how my relationship with Christ has changed my desires, my attitudes, and my entire way of thinking.
I don’t want to sin; I don’t want to deviate from His desires for me. I want what God wants. I desire what God desires. What salvation has done for me, is to give a way for my life to be aligned with His purposes.
Salvation did not make me any better than the next person. It just remedied the sin problem in my life. And I cannot keep my mouth shut, because I want to share this remedy with every person I meet, to tell them about it, to come up alongside and say –
“Hey, I’ve found something you’ve got to have!”.
Like FREE Slurpee day, you want to tell EVERYONE about this.
Of course, not everyone likes Slurpee’s and not everyone is going to say “I want to give my life to Jesus Christ”. And it is not for me to force them to enjoy a Slurpee, or the salvation offered by Christ.
Nope.
Every person must do this on their own, they have to get to a place in their life where they see just how dark and broken they are inside…and they have to want love and acceptance from something greater than their social media ranking.
We are all equal
in the eyes of God
We are all equal in the eyes of God. < Read that slowly once more.
God sees us as equally broken, full of potential but desperately in need of His remedy. His offer of salvation is for all, offered the same to each person, in every generation.
Salvation does not make one person better than another.
I reiterate, salvation is being cleansed by Jesus’ blood, atonement by Jesus himself. A person who does not accept Christ does not have access to the Father. That door remains closed. Salvation is nothing we get to do.
Can’t buy it, can’t earn it. It is a gift.
Why am I sharing this?
Because I have witnessed…and my heart has been pained when I am around those in the church, brothers and sisters who call themselves Christians and see themselves somehow more lofty, higher in rank, as recipients of a gold star on their forehead.
I find all too often that it is we as Christians who become rigid in our minds and how we extend ourselves to those we consider as “outside” the church. I have written that it is not an Us versus Them situation that God has called us into battle for. On the contrary, everything in scripture says to extend a hand of welcome and love to a world that is hurting.
Walls have no place in salvation.
And neither does status.
Holiness is not exemplified in the vehicle you drive. God’s hand upon your life is not symbolized by the prime location, size, and square footage of your home. No one gets a greater say in a church committee just based on how much they tithe or offer. The truth is each of these things are called out as ‘sinful’.
When we gather, we must be open to correction, hungry for new understanding, and to be led by the Holy Spirit towards a closer walk with God. But too often I have borne witness to brothers and sisters who are always correct, unwilling to bend, set in their own ideals, and very quick to condemn anyone who offers anything outside of what they consider as truth.
“No one gets to heaven except by my rules” they demand.
My heart breaks because this is exactly the stiff necked, rule and regulation church protocol Jesus spoke out against. He pushed back on the concept that regulations were above loving your neighbor as yourself.
We as people who are under the banner of Christ need to remember that our true position is one of humility and absolute gratitude for a salvation that we do not deserve. No one person, by any means of their own can earn salvation. It is given as a gift by God alone.
I am no different than any person on this planet. I am a sinful man by nature. I have been saved by the grace of God, cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. This gives me access to the Lord in prayer, where He will hear my petitions and my praise. He will never leave me, He is right here, always.
Jesus did not require me to wear a suit and tie when He offered salvation. Christ did not demand that I first seek full advancement within my church before I could be offered salvation. No one vouched for me in front of a review board. Neither were there nine interview questions that I had to answer correctly to get a second interview before the offer of salvation was extended.
He just needed me to get on my knees on a cold concrete floor at 2AM and ask His forgiveness. “Take all that I am LORD”.
The offer Jesus gave me is the same one that everyone else gets. To lay down my sinful, empty, and devious way of living in exchange for His righteousness.
It’s all His, and His to give.
I share this because the cry of my heart is for my brothers and sisters in the Body to stop elevating themselves and to remember that they are all the same; equally, sinfully broken – and equally saved by grace they cannot earn and do not deserve.
Those around us are watching how we walk the talk. Let us lead by example of our humility and love.
