If your Christian experience leaves you feeling terrible about yourself, you should know you’re not getting the whole story. If you walk away from church with your head hanging low, they forgot to tell you about the real Jesus. If you hang out with someone who says they know the Lord and you walk away feeling judged or condemned, rest assured that person knows less about Jesus than they’re letting on. Jesus said that God didn’t send His Son to judge the world, but to save it. If you hear something about Jesus that makes you feel like a worm who should live in perpetual shame and fear instead of gratitude, gladness and hope, you heard some false information. When it feels like God is a judge who is impossible to please, you want to run away and hide, right? The old deal God had with His people was like that. Moses came down from a mountain glowing with God’s glory and giving out rules they couldn’t keep. The people were in awe of the glory and afraid of Moses. They failed to meet the standards and wanted to keep Moses away. With Jesus, everything changed. In Mark chapter 9, Jesus went up on a mountain where He was transformed in front of his friends. They saw a glimpse of His radiant, eternal glory, but when He came down the mountain, the people were drawn to Him instead. They were filled with awe, but they longed to be close to Him. Rules we can’t keep and standards we can’t meet make us hide in shame, but grace freely given draws us in. The real Jesus is the one you want to run and cling to.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment