Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 25 verse 11:
"For your name's sake, O Lord,
pardon my guilt, for it is great."
The first truths are always the simplest and the most profound, and what we must learn and learn deeper over the course of our lifetime.
Here is the first truth; we are loved because God is love and we are forgiven because God is a god of grace.
There is nothing we can do to earn grace. The theologians used to say grace is "unmerited favor". It is never deserved but freely given out of the gracious character of God.
How freeing that is!
Somewhere in the back of our minds so many of us, even though we might say we believe in grace, still have this nagging sense that if we really were forgiven we would do more of what we know God wants us to do and less of what He doesn't (Romans 7:15). That is ultimately a prescription for depression and despair. It is also very ego-driven. To think that God would not love or forgive us just where we are and as we are is to put ourselves in His judgement seat. It's all about us!
But God's love and forgiveness really isn't about us. It is about God and His unmerited gifts to us. We are loved and forgiven not because of who we are but because of who He is.
"For your name's sake," the psalmist asks, "forgive my sins." It is for God's sake that we are pardonable and for God's sake that we are pardoned, and once that really gets into the depths of our being we finally understand that though our sins be great, our God is so much greater.
And finally we vacate our judgement seat, and allow Him to assume it as His seat of mercy.
No comments:
Post a Comment