The Gospel
All humans were separated from God for He is holy and sin cannot exist in His presence. We each did what was right in our own eyes, no matter how much He pleaded, because every inclination of our hearts was evil. Then Jesus came, knowing our depravity, and said, "I love you." He still says it. He looks each person straight in the eyes and says "I love you." He took the punishment for our sin. He took the separation from God, which was caused by our sin, upon Himself. He took it all and brought it to the grave! Then He rose again, leaving it behind, so now we are washed clean!
We are clean enough that God indwells us with Himself, the precious Holy Spirit. We are so perfectly clean that we can strut confidently into the throne-room of the King and declare that we are holy and blameless and can boldly pray in His name. We can be so bold because of the humility of realizing that it is not by any of our works, but by Christ's alone.
We are not above any other human for God's grace was not deserved but given. We are now separate from the world, separate even from our own sin-natures, and though the world, sin-nature, and devil still attack us and we still stumble, we are never condemned by God because Christ understands, having been tempted Himself, and He is constantly pleading for us in our defense as our Advocate, and He is the Judge.
We are clean enough that God indwells us with Himself, the precious Holy Spirit. We are so perfectly clean that we can strut confidently into the throne-room of the King and declare that we are holy and blameless and can boldly pray in His name. We can be so bold because of the humility of realizing that it is not by any of our works, but by Christ's alone.
We are not above any other human for God's grace was not deserved but given. We are now separate from the world, separate even from our own sin-natures, and though the world, sin-nature, and devil still attack us and we still stumble, we are never condemned by God because Christ understands, having been tempted Himself, and He is constantly pleading for us in our defense as our Advocate, and He is the Judge.
