I've come to think that the film, The Matrix is probably the best analogy to describe the gospel.
I just wanted to post what Neo says at the end of the first Matrix film.
I know you're out there...I can feel you now. I know that
you're afraid. You're afraid of us, you're afraid of
change...I don't know the future...I didn't come here to
tell you how this is going to end, I came here to tell you
how this is going to begin. Now, I'm going to hang up
this phone, and I'm going to show these people what you
don't want them to see . I'm going to show them a world
without you...a world without rules and controls, without
borders or boundaries. A world...where anything is
possible.
.....Where we go from there....Is a choice I leave to you.
"I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see."
These words were very powerful to me when I heard them a few days ago. It has Jesus written all over it.
Jesus, I think, loved to scare the hell out of people with His grace. His way is to give up on self completely and trust in Him for everything. We must die if we are to live.
I also have this controversial side of me that likes to challenge people. Possibly this was a gift from God. I don't know...but I love the unedited gospel. I love the fact God loves us without any buts. Conditional grace for a sinner is the same as giving him no grace at all. In fact, it's worse. It will do nothing but tease him, and in the end it will put him to a miserable death. Much like hanging a steak in front of a dog, telling him to be a cat or else he cannot have it.
Conditional grace or conditional agape makes no sense! To receive forgiveness in the church today means to quit a certain amount of sins and meet some unknown standard of holiness, then you will be pretty enough for God to give you His grace and love.
The truth is that we don't like trusting in God. We don't like being His workmanship. We want to clean ourselves up so we can feel presentable and clean before God. Then we can boast in front of people and lay the burden on a sinners back with the lie that they are just too sinful to be eligible to receive God's love. But on the inside, we feel we would sin just as much as they would if we weren't so afraid. So we continue to use fear as a motivation to get everyone else to behave like us. Thus, we make Jesus Christ into religion.
Grace is scary to us also because it also means we have to allow Christ to love the ugly sinful people.
I just felt like posting the fact that I have an anger problem with my mom. One minute I'm believing I'm a new creature in Christ, and Jesus' life is in me, and I am no longer a slave to sin, I live life being myself in Jesus, etc. But then I lash out and argue as soon as soon as she mouths off. I can deal with it for a few words no problem, but there is a certain point I get to where I lose control of myself and it simply comes out. I yell, I want revenge, I feel I'm justified in my anger while I'm angry, and it feels so good to let it out because she irritates me worse than anything sometimes. But when it's over I feel ashamed, I feel I have no right to call myself a Christian, the doubt creeps it's head in "You don't really have the Spirit of God..just look at how sinful you are."
I know it's all lies, so it's not that big a deal. But if I don't quickly fight it with the gospel and God's truth, it grows and grows. It can wear someone down if they aren't careful. The devil will start telling you all these lies that you will never be fruitful this happened because you aren't trying hard enough, you aren't having enough faith, etc. But then God's grace speaks to me and reminds me that Abraham waited over 20 years for his promised son. People who hold the gospel in an honest and good heart bear fruit with patience. We are God's workmanship and He is able to change us anyway He wants. He is our Creator and our Father, and we are in His hands, and He tells us His grace is sufficient for us. His strength is made perfect our weakness.
Then you're filled with thanksgiving and if you could, you would latch your arms around Him and never let go and never quit saying thank you. What mother or father loves their children based on their behavior? How much more does the perfect Father love us even when we're misbehaving?
One fruit you see from the beginning is patience. Patience in bearing fruit. Patience with our own sinfulness, with the ability to say as Charles Spurgeon said, "Thou art not saved because thou art righteous".
Let the Creator, your Father fix you. It is His job to fix His broken creation. And He does this in ways we don't expect or understand. Just keep the love of Jesus in your heart. Trust Him, and out of your heart will flow rivers of living water.
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SShutes
