Redeemed

There’s something you should know. 

I have always been and I will always be a sinner.

I wish it wasn’t true.

I wish I was drawn only to good things, and when I say good, I mean holy and righteous in the eyes of God.

But I’m not. 

I’m drawn to sin constantly.

I need Jesus all the time.

BUT I also need you to know something else.

I’ve been redeemed.

See long ago, God created the earth.

He created it perfectly and lived in community with His creation.

But they got distracted by their desires to serve themselves.

And the world got filled with sinners.

So God sent His son Jesus.

Jesus lived on earth.

Fully.

Day in, day out, childhood, adolescence, teen years, young adult, 33 or so years.

He never sinned.

Did you catch the part about Him never sinning ever? Cause that part consistently blows my mind.

No selfish motives.

No judgmental thoughts.

No regrets.

No disgrace.

He never sinned but He did call out the sinners.

He called them out by offering truth and forgiveness in a new way.

He offered Himself.

And people either followed Him or got pissed.

So pissed that they arranged to have Him killed.

He was killed on a cross, which is one of the worst ways a person could die.

Then He rose.

And when He rose, He defeated the power of sin by His own power.

He conquered all the power of sin.

He gave life.

Christ still speaks.

Follow me.

Your sins are forgiven.

Accept grace.

Receive hope.

Walk with Me.

Live.

I'm redeemed by Christ.
I rest completely safe in Christ.

Snapshot into my heart

I've been singing a set of lyrics today quite a bit. 

"When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look, and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin.

Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me"

(before the throne of God above lyrics)

Last night I wrote my next post for be.loved. It's always fun to write for that blog because it's geared for a specific audience, and the heartbeat of that blog is so cool - leading young women to Jesus! Yay!

Part of what I wrote about was how it's easy to sit in regret.

I've been reflecting on that a bit today. I've had numerous conversations with friends about how sometimes I (we) like to sit in condemnation. We probably wouldn't admit it to too many people, but at the end of the day, sometimes we like to sit in our regret and soak up sorrow for ourselves.

But Jesus doesn't let us do that. He gives us grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. He's so great! He forgives our sin and lets us walk in freedom. It's so beautiful.

I've been singing those lyrics because they're so true.

My despair over my sin is a sin in itself. I don't have to choose to despair my past. I choose to rest in Jesus - to look upwards to Him! He made an end to all of my sin. Because Jesus died, my soul, which is ridiculously sinful and sin driven, my soul is free!

God is just. He put all penalty on Jesus so that I could be pardoned.

Wow.

As I was chatting with this idea with a friend last week, we were talking about our desires for condemnation and how Jesus gives us full freedom.

She opened up a book she's recently read through and said, this is what you mean.

"Receiving God's forgiveness means receiving each part: both its condemnation of sin and its release from debt. To receive its just condemnation is to confess the sin it condemns - to agree with God about what we've done wrong - and then to repent, turning from the wrongdoings back to him by faith.
... Then - and this is essential - we believe God and rejoice. We rejoice that our debt has been canceled (Psalm 32; Col 2:15), that nothing can separate us from God's love, not even our own sin (Rom 8:38). We believe that our sin is not only forgiven but removed, taken away, as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12), that he remembers it no more. We rejoice that no one can condemn us any longer because he has set us free (Rom. 8:1, 34). "
Mike Wilkerson (Redemption) - emphasis mine.

Those words are true. We sorrow our sin and recognize that the things our heart desires and goes towards is ever sinful. Then we drop our sins at the foot of the cross, repent of them, and give them to Jesus.

Then Jesus takes them away.

And we're stoked about that. Because we're free.

We're free in Christ. Hooray!