The Gospel for Life预览

From Rags to Riches

Getting Our Toes Wet:

Imagine being an orphaned child from the poorest country on earth. You live out in the elements, you have to forage for a morsel of food to sustain you for the day, the only water available is the dirty river where animals drink from and people bath in, and perhaps worst of all, you have no family to love you and nurture you. Tragically, too many children know first-hand what this experience is like; but this also describes all of us before we are saved by Jesus. We are poor orphans with no hope and nothing to offer but our sin and filthy rags of “good works.”

Diving in Deep:

As 1 Peter 2:9 tells us, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” When we are saved, we are not just adopted into the family of God, but also into the Kingdom of God. We become a child of the King. That makes us princes and princesses! Our sin is washed white by the blood of Jesus, and our “good works” which were once just filthy rags, are used by God for the good of His people and for His glory. God could have left us in our dead, grimy, orphaned state, but He chose to raise us to new life and to adopt us as joint heirs with Christ. For our part, we need to shed that orphan state of mind. We are no longer autonomous, dependent only on ourselves for survival. We are part of a family and a Kingdom with a loving, gracious, almighty Father at the head. The same God Who commands the stars and holds every molecule of the entire universe in His hand, wants to nurture us and grow us. He is as much our Father as He is our King! 

Back on Dry Land:

When we belong to Jesus, we are blessed to be a part of the greatest royal family that there ever was or will be! Our responsibility is to go forth as members of the family of God and the Kingdom of God, cooperating with the Holy Spirit to shed our old, dead, orphaned self, and to reflect our Savior to the world giving Him the glory.