viewoutsidethepew

If you tried to repay me for a gift I gave to you, that would end up as a silly thing for you to do or an offense to me. Likewise, if I gave you a gift and you threw it against the wall and defiantly exclaimed that you didn’t want it and had no intention of using or keeping it my heart would break.

God gave a gift to every human being. God gave the uncreated One, the only One who comes from, and therefore is of the being as, God, whom we know as Jesus. This gift flowing from the divine love of Creator had only one precondition – it goes to anyone who does not deserve it, and who cannot in any way provide the payment for what Jesus alone could do. Jesus gave up life, as shown in the blood that was shed from his head (thorns, symbol of the cursed land from which humans eat), wrists and feet (from the carpenter’s nails which Romans used to destroy instead of build), back (from the whips that guilty people used to punish the innocent Saviour) and side (which a soldier caused with a spear to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that the life was gone from the body of Jesus the Messiah).

And do you accept the gift and revel in it and delight in the freedom which it gives you, or do you deny it, or try to earn it?

“But I want to ask myself, am I really seeking the way into the presence of God by the Blood or by something else? What do I mean when I say, ‘by the Blood’? I mean simply that I recognize my sins, that I confess that I have need of cleansing and of atonement, and that I come to God on the basis of the finished work of the Lord Jesus. I approach God through His merit alone, and never on the basis of my attainment; never, for example, on the ground that I have been extra kind or patient to-day, or that I have done something for the Lord this morning. I have to come by way of the Blood every time. The temptation to so many of us when we try to approach God is to think that because God has been dealing with us – because He has been taking steps to bring us into something more of Himself and has been teaching us deeper lessons of the Cross – He has thereby set before us new standards, and that only by attaining to these can we have a clear conscience before Him. No! A clear conscience is never based upon our attainment; it can only be based on the work of the Lord Jesus in the shedding of His Blood” (“The Normal Christian Life”, by Watchman Nee, 1973 edition, pages 16-17).

“The payment for sin is death, but the gift that God freely gives is everlasting life found in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 God’s Word).

Gift…freely given…love…great love…for you…specifically you…great love…love…given freely…Gift