Monday on My Mind

Did you know that two things happen when you put your faith in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins?

The first thing that happens is that God gives you a NEW LIFE here on earth. Which of us would say we’ve never messed up? Which of us wouldn’t desire a second chance? Which of us is without problems? Which of us doesn’t want better relationships, a peace during times of trouble, directions for this trip we call life? Before the point that we put our faith in Christ, the Bible would say that we are living for ourselves, not for God. We are gratifying our sinful nature. Spiritually dead. Maybe you have felt this way. That you are just walking through the hum drums of life….going through the motions. You feel like you need some change, but don’t know where to start. Maybe you feel like ‘religion’ is just a bunch of hoops to jump through and that it doesn’t look like something you are interested in. Maybe you are even searching….for fulfillment, for a change of pace, for refreshment. Well, I will tell you today that if you keep trying to do this on your own, you are going to turn up empty. God would tell us to give up our ‘rights’, our entitlement, our desires, and let HIM do the work in us. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. (Matthew 16:25) God has put in each one of us a desire to know HIM. With every longing, every craving, every wish, it seems that we try to fill ourselves up with things other than God. But, we must recognize that our fulfillment can only be satisfied in a relationship with God. God will often try many attempts to wake us up and teach us this. Maybe you are feeling God speaking this to your heart at this stage in your life now. It is at this point in which the Bible reassures us that we should NOT look ‘inward’ for help. Instead, we are to look at the cross, where God sent his Son Jesus to die for us, so that we can have access to God.

Once you put your faith in Jesus, God begins to work in you. After this point God tells us that we are a new creation. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17) When we put our faith in Jesus, we are made alive through him. Sin now longer has reign over us. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin. In the same way count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6: 6,11) Being a slave to sin just means that we are in a continual cycle of sin, trying to find fulfillment, getting it temporarily, but then when the fulfillment is gone we must sin again to be fulfilled...thus sin becomes our 'master'. But God gives us hope. He asks us to give up our life as we know it (the cycle of sin and living for ourselves) and he will give us a new life. It is the work of the Holy Spirit…..a gift from God that we receive after our faith is put in Jesus.

Yes, after we put our faith in Jesus, God starts working in us. We want to go to church and learn, we want to read our Bible, we want to try and obey God’s commands and we find that they aren’t burdensome. We want to pray, we want to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to what he has to say because in him is LIFE, and BREATH, and every longing is fulfilled. We realize that the direction and guidance for our life is found only in God’s word to us, the Bible. We find an excitement and vigor as we watch God transform our life. It’s a ‘pumped up feeling’ that we have for God at this point. We feel alive, TRULY ALIVE for the first time. And, this not to live for ourselves, but to live for God.

The second thing that happens once we put our faith in Jesus Christ is that we have confidence that we will inherit eternal life. Beyond a shadow of a doubt we know that we are going to heaven when we die. We have no fear in death. There is no wondering what happens. There is no “I hope I make it”. There is surety and peace in the face of our certain physical death. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:40)

If you’ve never experienced either of these two things, then think about if you’ve ever taken the time to learn about your Savior, Jesus Christ. Do you still view him as a little baby that came at Christmas time? Do you still view him as the guy that little children sing a famous song about at church? To you, is Jesus just a symbol of religion? A crucifix that hangs in your kitchen? A cross around your neck on a silver chain? Or do you know him? Would you say you have a relationship with him? Have you believed with your whole heart that Jesus lived a sinless life, died as your undeserved atoning sacrifice, and was resurrected by God, all so that you can have access to God? Have you placed your entire life on that belief?

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! (Galatians 2:20)