Jesus Christ.
I know many of you know that I believe in Him already, but do you really understand, I wonder?
As I have grown up, I have realized that I am absolutely hopeless. Everything I do is wrong. I am never able to do what is right or good. I just am an icky person without much direction in my life. I fall short of people's expectations and of my own. I struggle with anxiety. I am afraid of everything. Even my own shadow.
But even for me, a fearful coward, there is hope. As I started realizing my grossness, I also began to realize that I need someone to save me from my hopelessness. What is the point of life if there is no hope?
Jesus stepped in to save me. He became my hope. I don't know how to really describe it, but Jesus filled my dark places with light. And where there was light, there was joy and hope and life. I have never felt more alive than when I am reading His words.
Now, I know it sounds like it's all about me, but it's not. It's all about Him. Seriously. Without Him, I am in a desert of anxiety and humiliation and shame and lust and greed and a million other sinful things. With Him, I drown in the water of life. I can't breathe for the sheer joy of it. Those sinful things that envelop my soul without Him are covered by His blood and are completely removed.
In Jesus, there is true satisfaction that no other relationship or grade or drug can give. He fills the places of pain and balms them with His love. He loves you. The God of the universe, the whole universe, loves you. He comes to you and wants know you. He wants to become your steadfast.
This love is not brought by being a good person. As humans, there is nothing we can do to increase the love of God. His love is a gift. His grace is a gift. There is nothing we can do to add our salvation. We cannot earn it. I mean, honestly, how could we? We are creatures that only live for a hundred or so years. Every day we are sinning. There is no way we could earn the love of God who is perfect and has no sin.
That is why Jesus came to die for us. I know most people have heard this one: Jesus died for you. But think about it this way. If someone truly loved you, he would willingly throw himself in front of a bus to save you from certain death. He would jump into a sea entirely infested with sharks to pull you from their jaws. He would sacrifice his life for yours so that you would not have to endure torture and death. This is what Jesus did. He died so you would not have to be judged on the basis of your sin. That is a death that you could never come back from. In His death, Jesus took the sins of the world. I mean, He was so sinful in that moment that even God could not look upon Him, God's only Son. But it was necessary so that we, the slimy human beings who actually committed the sins that Jesus died for, could receive the grace of God the Father.
"For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins" (Romans 3:23-25)."When you were slaves to sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:20-23)."For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him" (John 3:16-17).
Jesus came to give us forgiveness from our crimes. Because of His death, we can stand before the ultimate judge, God, and be pardoned of the sins we commit. If our sins were stains on a white shirt, the blood of Jesus worked like bleach and removed everything. Not even that mustard stain in the corner will remain. Whatever that represents will be forgiven. Our death for that sin is cancelled.
"And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Hebrews 10:10)."If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
If you believe that Jesus died for you and ask Him, He will forgive every blot and blemish of sin on your life. He will love you and hold you. He will fill the unsatisfied places that feel infinitely empty. He wants you to know him and to see his glory.
"And the Word [Jesus] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.... And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace" (John 1:14 and 16).
If you have questions about what I'm talking about, shoot me an email or a message on Facebook. I'd love to talk more about this.
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