In His Arms

"The promise of deliverance, the assurance that we are accepted by Almighty God, is tied not to the intensity of our faith, but to the object of our faith. When we approach God in prayer, our plea is not that we have been good that day or that we have just come from a Christian meeting full of praise or that we try harder, but that Christ has died for us. And against that plea, Satan has no riposte." (D.A. Carson, Basics for Believers)

Anyone know what a riposte is? Haha, enjoy the luxuries of the internet and look that one up for yourself at www.dictionary.com (I even gave you a link!) Silliness aside, what a powerful quote. DA really nails us here. How often do we turn from grace to our performance. Often we even do this without noticing. Have a bad day struggling with sin? Is there any hope for you to have a devotion the next day? For me, the answer is often, no.

I notice here though that I avoid my God because I am basing my plea before him on what I have done and not upon what he has done. He is the object of our faith. Our faith is a gift from him. What do we have that we have not received? We have let our faith fall from his work to our own, and while we are called to work and labor in our faith, we can sometimes confuse Justification and Sanctification here.

Justification is our standing before God. We are justified when we accept Jesus sacrifice on the cross as our payment for our sins through faith. This is something of which we have no part. It is wholly outside of ourselves and done for us by our generous God.

Sanctification is the work following Justification. It is still God doing the work, now that we are saved and made new, he is working on our hearts and minds to change us back into his image. However, he gives us a part in this work. We are called to labor with his strength.

Getting these two parts of salvation straight will help us to remember that justification is done wholly by God, and to combat legalism (viewing our own work as our means of right-standing with God). We can say with the apostle Paul in Romans 8:

31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36As it is written,

"For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let us remember these words and make them our own as we realize that God is the object of our faith and that he is secure and therefore so are we regardless of circumstances.