No performance necessary

In the previous post we looked at Salvation as being all His work and His gift to us. Still on the topic, I’d like to share another portion of Scripture with you: 1 Peter 1:3 “Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope,”

We tend to read portions of the Bible, as the verse in 1 Peter 1:3, with our own glasses on. We read about the free gift of salvation and redemption, of a brand new (undeserved) life and yet we think we need to work to obtain it – can you see the paradox? We want to work our fingers to the bone in order to deserve something which we have already received, for free! When we think on our performance based way of life, it makes perfect sense to have to work in order to obtain. Unfortunately we tend to forget that our real life (the spiritual) works according to rules of its own, the natural laws do not apply! No, there is nothing wrong with a performance based way of life in our physical lives, but the same does not apply to our spiritual. Our salvation, and everything that follows after that, from start to finish, is all based on Jesus’ performance!

Have you ever woken up and thought to yourself: “Today I am going to do my best not to sin!”? Then, as you drive to work, you keep repeating to yourself: “Today I will not sin, today I will do my best.” We tend to think that we can think ourselves out of sin – the whole ‘positive thinking’ thing. Unfortunately this method only brings us closer to these, much feared, sins... Think on this: are we not what we think? And if we think, constantly, day and night, on sin... will we really avoid sin? Christians the world over fill their precious hours with thoughts on... sin... they fear it because they think they will lose God along the way if they err. Did we forget that He said that there is nothing that can separate us from His Love?(Rom 8:35) We allow ourselves to be sin-conscious, when He (Christ) did everything so that we can be the righteousness of God.

Reminding ourselves of sin the whole day through will only put our focus on sin... which makes it so much easier to fall... for sin. There is a better way... (John 14:6)

Christ is the better Way. In 1 Corinthians 1:30 the Bible declares: “But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God, [revealed to us a knowledge of the divine plan of salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as] our Righteousness [thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God], and our Consecration [making us pure and holy], and our Redemption [providing our ransom from eternal penalty for sin].”

God has put us in Christ, remember the picture? He is the Vine and we are the branches; God has actually implanted us in Christ. Now it is His Life in us, it is His Life now flowing through us! This is the Good News and it’s no fairy tale! I understand the battles you are in on a daily basis, I also understand if you battle with the idea of just sitting, doing nothing (to contribute to your redemption). It would then come as a relief that I am not suggesting you sit back and just wait for death to creep up on you; yes, there is still much for us to do, but it has nothing to do with saving our own souls by works. We need to see that we now have His life, His provision and His initiative – we now walk in His blessings (Eph 1:3)

When you open your eyes in the morning, instead of focusing on sin, how about focusing on Him? Focus on what He wants to do in, and through you today. I’m sure that, by the time you get back in bed that same night, you would not have thought about sin for even a second! Now our prayers change from ‘me’ being helped by Him, to Him doing what He wants to do through me, Him being that Helper that He is, Him being my right standing with God, Him being Wisdom in me, Him being Holiness in and through me and Him making the best decisions through me at the office or even in our family. A 'small' change in focus; from me to Him!

There is no performance on our side necessary, only faith in His finished work (complete work on the Cross and in His Resurrection). Trust the Holy Spirit to ‘prompt’ you every moment of the day in guiding you to really ‘know’ Christ in you and among us all, as His Body. Here we are not referring to a cognitive form of knowledge, we are talking about an understanding of our union with Him, we are talking about an intimate and personal knowledge. The more you ‘know’ Him, the more you will live like Him! (John 14:20; 2Cor 3:18)

May you walk in His blessings today, and every day hereafter, like never before! Hey, and do not dare to forget: Father loves you more than you can think! (Thank you Belene for your editing input, I really appreciate it!)