By Grace

Yesterday, through the readings of the Scripture, the Spirit of God filled me with immense joy and full-hearted...amazement at His Love and His sovereignty! Studying the Sermon on the Mount, God brought sudden insight into the place of His Law, and Jesus' exaltation of it. The Law shows us God's holiness-- how could Jesus ever come to abolish it?? Jesus LOVES holiness; He's the guy in Psalm 119 who cries "Oh, how I LOVE Your Law; it is my Delight!" He came to show us how beautiful it is to keep the Law, and to purify a people for Himself who are ZEALOUS about law-keeping (Titus 2), and to make them able to do what they were never able to do before: keep the Law, because He livees in them and enables them to!! Anyway, it struck me how beautiful that was... and get this: God wrote things into His Law to ensure that He could bear its curse. He's the One who said "cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree," so that in 1500 years, when crucifixion was popular, He could endure it and "become accursed," to set His Beloved free from the Curse deserved by everyone who breaks His Law. I wanted to cry out with Paul "o the depth of the riches of His wisdom and knowledge!"

And I felt like Martin Luther, suddenly understanding, with proper amazement, that, though we CAN'T keep the Law, we can still be declared righteous! God loves His Law, and it is beautiful-- all His Laws protect beauty-- and He made a way for law-breakers to become righteous... and to love His Law as He does, as it was so gloriously kept in Christ! As I didn't have any nails, or any inside doors in our living quarters, for that matter, I contented myself with running into our dining room/bedroom and cuddled up in bed with Ryan, thanking God and rejoicing. When he woke up a little, I told him what the Lord was showing me, and he kissed my forehead and I curled up on his chest, happy in Jesus.

Oh, won't you read this and leave praising the Lord that it is NOT, as some cults subtly maintain, "by grace we are saved, after all we can do." It is SOLA GRATIA-- by Grace, GIVEN to us, all the way, the only way... and that is WORTH staking your life claim upon!

Awaiting the Day when I can hold the All-holy, and not be pushed away... because of Grace,
~Christina