There is no damage to our souls that Christ cannot repair. But He will not be manipulated by fake repentance on our part. If we expect His forgiveness and help, we’d better lay it all down before Him, with extreme honesty. No exceptions, no excuses.
In Christ, we may come confidently before God’s throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), but we had better not come with anything less than a no-strings-attached commitment to change our ways. We may fool others about our hearts, but God is not deceived.
God should be more than a “maybe.” Our hearts must be inclined to Him. We must fix their minds on Him. We must — and here is the main idea– be devoted to Him. This devotion should be the result of a conscious, deliberate choice we have made.
The man in Psalm 10 is doing what Satan wants us all to do: manage our own lives. And that pride is what led us onto the downward slope of destruction. Since Satan can make it look so respectable and progressive, I imagine he is quite proud of it.
Sometimes holiness requires physical separation (and we are foolish if we don’t understand this). But with or without physical separation, holiness requires that our principles, our values, and our decision-making — our character — be different.
As God went through the land in judgment that night, the people of Israel waited, trusting the protection of God’s promise: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”
God’s word tests our character. There can be no salvation for us if we won’t humble ourselves before God, and it is in our attitude toward the commandments of God that we get some of our first feedback as to how far along the road of humility we are.
By taking upon Himself the death that was our due, Christ satisfied the law’s demand, making it possible to forgive us and treat us as if we had not sinned. In this way, God became both “just” and “the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Ask yourself how you’d feel if you lived during the Roman Empire and found out that the person described in Isaiah 52:13-53:12 had been born in Judea and was now proclaiming the gospel of God’s kingdom. How could there be a more exciting prospect?
Jacob said that Judah would be a “lion.” It is no coincidence that Jesus is described in Revelation 5:5 as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David.” He is the very King prophesied by Jacob when he blessed his sons (Genesis 49:9,10).
There is no damage to our souls that Christ cannot repair. But He will not be manipulated by fake repentance on our part. If we expect His forgiveness and help, ...