Thots On Being a Child of God

Our Sunday School class (middle Adults, 31-50) has been considering various aspects of Salvation – Biblical concepts such as Sin, sanctification, redemption, justification, propitiation, etc.  Keep reading anyway if you love the Lord!  

These deep topics are wonderful when explored.  It is always uplifting to consider what it is that Christ has done for us.  Whole books of the Bible have been devoted to these concepts (i.e., Romans).  My heart-strings were moved when we considered especially this work of redemption yesterday.

We were talking about the wonderful work of Christ on Calvary as He was put to death on our behalf.  Truthfully speaking, He was taking our sins on His sinless body and soul.  He received not only the punishment that sinners of this world received (and that He didn’t deserve), He was forsaken by His Father in Heaven, as He hung on the Cross (“Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?”).  

But we do not understand the pain a Holy God feels when sin is placed upon Him.  We do not comprehend the utter repulsion our Pure and Perfect God feels with regard to sin in His presence.  Reason:  we live in and around sin so much that we can’t understand what living apart from sin means.  We don’t live the holy lives we should, and so we are not shocked, shamed, or shunning sin like we should.  We are desensitized to it.  It should feel like the way a young virgin girl would feel about being raped.  The shame, humiliation, uncleanness, and wretchedness are too great to bear.  That’s about the best picture I can come up with.  And our Savior was willing to endure such – and believe me; He felt it far more than we did – so that God’s wrath would be placed on Him, rather than us.  He endured it to purchase us back to Himself and the Father in Heaven.  It was a HUGE price on His part.

Such a thought moves me to tears.  It is such love, such grace.  But it is not the end; it’s only the beginning of this redemption.

The next thought we had was that when Jesus was crucified, He not only paid for our sins, He transferred His righteousness to those who would accept Him.  He didn’t simply make a way for us to NOT pay for our sins, leaving us there.  He went further, and gave us not simply a “justified” stamp on our sin-record; He stamped us with “RIGHTEOUS.”  But He didn’t stop there.  He gave us a place in Heaven to live for all eternity – apart from not only the power and penalty of sin, but apart from the presence of sin.  Yet, He didn’t stop there.  He placed us into HIS FAMILY!  That one gets me!  He made me His child.  What judge might set a criminal free?  Many would.  What judge would declare a criminal “righteous”?  Several might.  What judge would make sure that a criminal had a great community to live in so he might enjoy the rest of his life?  Not very many would do that.  But what judge would do all that and then adopt the criminal as one of his own children?  What judge would give to that criminal right to the home, fortune, and reputation of the family?  This is grace – and it is just what God has done for us in redeeming us!  

Doesn’t that just make you want to cry with joy and thankfulness to the Lord for what He’s done for us!