Romans

Thoughts on Grace and the Abundant Life

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

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The following material has been previously published or preached or taught elsewhere at least once. It is all “borrowed'” based on the BASE principle of writing (which is Borrow And Steal Everything).

Following Jesus isn’t about praying a prayer or signing a card or walking an aisle. It’s about lining up with Jesus, doing what He said to do and going where He said to go. It’s really and truly about following not a moral code or set of rules but a Person.

It’s about seeing colors when the rest see only black and white. How do you explain the color red to someone who’s only seen black, white, and shades of grey? How do you convince someone that you really gain your life by losing it and win by putting others before yourself? That’s where faith comes in.

Faith is confidence in a God Who is in the past, present, and future at once. Because He’s already in the future, it’s already a done deal to Him. So faith is living out God’s declaration of how the future will be like it’s that way now. Like the victory is completely won.

When Jesus promises us eternal life, it doesn’t just mean living forever. As C S Lewis said of the White Witch in The Magician’s Nephew, ““But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want; they do not always like it.”

True eternal life that Jesus gives is as deep and wide as it is long. It’s so deep that no matter how low you sometimes sink, you can never get beneath the grace of God. It is as wide as the ocean of God’s love for you which you can never see the end of or ever run away so far that you’re still not covered by it.

It is life to the full. It is the abundant life. It is living in the strength and provision of Jesus Himself and having everything you need to live a content and godly life now. It means deeper friendships, deeper dating relationships, deeper marriages, deeper families, deeper careers, and a deeper life that has meaning and purpose beyond anything you could ever dream up or imagine. It means eucharisteo, an overflowing joy and gratitude in everything and for everything.

I love the way The Message ends Romans 5. It’s a good way to end this blog:

“All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. (Romans 5:20, 21 MSG)

Making The Impossible Possible

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If you want to see a positive, life-affirming movie, watch The Impossible. It’s set during the 2004 tsunami that hit the coastal areas of several Asian countries and centers around a family trying desperately to find each other.

It seems like an impossible task. There’s so much devastation and chaos that the odds of finding anyone familiar are extremely high. But their love for each other proves more resilient than any obstacle that stands in their way and in the end, they find each other. Sorry if I just spoiled the ending for you.

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Maybe you’re facing an impossible situation right now.

Maybe it’s a friendship that’s fractured beyond repair.

Maybe it’s a marriage that’s fraying at the seams and it seems like it will inevitably fall apart.

Maybe it’s a son or daughter who has gone prodigal and the chance of their returning seems less likely with each passing year.

Maybe it’s a dream that you’ve all but given up on, believing that you missed your best chance long ago and now any hope of seeing that dream come true is fading.

I’ve come to believe that with God, truly nothing is impossible. There’s no such thing as too late. There’s no such thing as past hope. There’s nothing broken that can’t be fixed, nothing so shattered it can’t be put back together again.

In fact, the more impossible the situation, the better God is at coming through. He even makes it look easy.

After all, if he can take a life that was dead and decayed and make it alive again, is anything else really so hard?

If he can take death, hell, sin, and the grave and defeat them on their own terms at the cross and the empty tomb, is there anything left that can stand against him?

I love these words of the Apostle Paul’s: ”

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutelynothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us (Romans 8:31-39).