Thursday, March 23, 2006
1 Peter 1:17-19 Conduct yourselves throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear; knowing that you were . . . redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
A GOSPEL PERSPECTIVE
Have you ever seen that program on TV in which a man paints a nature scene? He makes it look so easy -- doing the mountains, the trees, the grass, the river, perhaps the animals, both close up and far away. But I've tried it myself and have found out that at least for me it isn't that easy. It is hard to get the perspective. If you have ever done it you know what I mean -- it is difficult to get a river to look like it is flowing toward you, or to show that a road or a building goes into the distance.
Perspective is such an important thing. What would happen to us if the only perspective we had of God is that God demands that we be holy and that He won't settle for anything less; that your eternal fate rests in your hands; that you have to do everything that God demands; that you need to be holy, absolutely righteous and pure and without a single sin? What then?
Well, one thing that could happen is that we would absolutely despair and give up on any hope of ever even having a chance at heaven. Because who in the world can do what God demands? Not a single one of us! Either that or we would have to content ourselves with being like the Pharisees, satisfied with comparing our goodness with that of others -- and, of course, always coming out looking better than everyone else!
Enough of that! Look instead at what the perspective is that Peter intends us to have because of what Jesus did: "Conduct yourselves . . . knowing . . . you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ..."
When it comes to living holy lives on this earth as God demands, we don't go about striving to live lives free of sin because we can earn God's favor that way! Our motivation for living holy lives is that we have been redeemed. We have been purchased through the blood of Jesus. We have been given all the holiness that God demands! Every single one of God's commands which hang over us have been kept by Jesus!
God be thanked for giving us such a Gospel-oriented perspective -- that our going to heaven depends on what He has done, not on what we do!
