Thursday, January 05, 2006
Finding Self Acceptance
The Bluefish is quoting Richard Lovelace
We are not, we cannot be, lovable. We are never good enough for ourselves or for the Lord. If you want to feel good about yourself, do so not because of you, but because of God - you are lovable because you are loved. Loved not by your parents, spouse, or friends, but loved by the God of creation. Loved to the extent of that same God self-sacrificing. That is, I believe, the evangelistic message of this age.
Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives? Many? have a theoretical commitment to this doctrine, but in their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for their justification? drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience.That's an awful lot of "theo-speak" for an idea that I think is vital for evangelism in the common age.
Few know enough to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther's platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude?
We are not, we cannot be, lovable. We are never good enough for ourselves or for the Lord. If you want to feel good about yourself, do so not because of you, but because of God - you are lovable because you are loved. Loved not by your parents, spouse, or friends, but loved by the God of creation. Loved to the extent of that same God self-sacrificing. That is, I believe, the evangelistic message of this age.
