The Great Reversal
Today we hear a lot in the news about racism and are reminded of the wickedness of slavery and of the sinful hearts of men. It’s very upsetting for people to think about, and yet people rarely think about what our position before God used to be.
We were slaves to sin. Ephesians 2:3 calls us children of wrath. We are born and we are heading down the path to death, enslaved by our sin, to an eternity under God’s wrath. It was a one way road for us, further and further away from God to destruction and punishment, with no hope.
Why? Because that's how bad sin is. God is holy, righteous and just in everything He does. Hell is a punishment that fits the crime and it’s absolutely terrifying to consider.
But, Jesus!..........and I love a good ‘but’ conjunction don’t you?
But Jesus came and lived the perfect life that we could never live and He died to pay the price for our sins and give us His righteousness, so that we could be saved.
The cross is the point in history where a new path was made. Jesus made a new path, a way for us to go back to God, just like we see in the Prodigal Son. The father was a picture of God, the son he saw far off and started running to is you and me, and Jesus is like the road they were both able to meet on so that the son could apologise to the father and the father forgive and embrace his son. Jesus is the reason we can be forgiven and have a beautiful relationship with the Father, and with Jesus Himself.
The point at which we come to the cross in the pathway (we that believe and trust in Jesus), is the point of our forgiveness, and our turning to God. The great reversal. We were made to have purpose, we were made to worship God and to have a relationship with Him. We were made to serve God and do good works He has planned for us to do and many other things that we don’t even know yet. What we wake up and see and live everyday isn’t it. Sin, sickness, crying, pain, sorrow, thistles and thorns, getting old and dying; this is death, decay and ruin, this isn’t what God made us for.
In this great reversal, this journey and pilgrimage to God, the road is paved by Jesus and will be full of moments meant to prune and change us. God, through His Holy Spirit, by means of Bible study, prayer, Christian fellowship, faithful teaching and trials and tribulations, is at work in us to make us more like Jesus, and who we were intended to be back in the beginning. It is a result, a fruit that grows from believing and trusting in Jesus for salvation. It is called sanctification, and we wilfully participate and work together with the Lord who sanctifies us. It can be painful and cause us sorrow but its end result is beauty.
Do you want to be who God intended you to be? Cry out and ask Him to make you that person and to start now. Be willing to work with Him and cut the sin out of your life. We have to ask Him for the power to do this, we were never meant to find that power in ourselves. Day by day, moment by moment, step by step, walk in the Spirit with the Lord. Remember, when we fail and fall we can confess our sins to the Lord and He will pick us up, dust us off and bid us try again. Keep pressing on, you are forgiven beloved child of God, what are you waiting for?!
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.