What You Are, Not What You Ought to Be

Ought: Used to indicate something that is probable

Probable: A person who is likely to become or do something

I started thinking about the love of God.  He accepts us when we are dead to sin.  If you look back over your life, as I often do, we often see the worst of ourselves.  We look back on the regrets and transgressions of our life and think, “How could God love a sinner like me?”

Too many times I think we get stuck in that place of “I’m not good enough, I will never be good enough so why would God love me or bother with me. Some of the doubt we have comes from the world we live in.  We are surrounded by sinners just like us.  We also live in a cruel world where hate resides and love for others is lacking.  We live in a world where social media has made it possible for people to lash out at others with hate filled words and we can reach millions in an instant.

Jesus hung out with sinners.  He spent time with tax collectors, murderers, prostitutes and any number of other questionable characters.  His interactions with the sinners of the world should be one of the most important lessons we learn.  He hung out with sinners in order to save sinners.  He also died for sinners. 

If you have someone in your life who you love, think about what it would be like to sentence that person you love to death to save a sinful nation.  If you have children; what if you had to watch as that child was nailed to a cross.  If you don’t have children; what if you had a parent, a brother or sister?  God took His Son and let Him be nailed to a cross until death for you and me.  He wants you, loves you and sacrificed His Son for you.  Not as you ought to be, but as you are.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, when I think of the love You have for me I am in awe.  You love me as I am right now.  You want what is best for me and that is why You continue to pursue me.  I am a child of God and You have given me a way back to You. 

       

Scripture: But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  2 Peter 3:8-9

Christ in Our Place

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.  Romans 5:6-11