My child, I love you and accept you, not because of anything you have done, but because of Jesus Christ My Son and what He did on the cross. All is forgiven and you are made right with Me. All you need to do is believe and accept My love, My forgiveness and your inheritance. It’s all here waiting for you to receive.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
What if we—in spite of our weaknesses—were to boldly move forward in our relationship with God? Would Jesus meet us halfway? I’m not talking about the Lord letting us slide through life stunted, a mere shell of what we are intended to be. What I mean is that there is a willingness on God’s part to work with us, not abandoning us just because our heart isn’t yet all it should be. Gracious terms? I’ll say!
The opportunity is always there for God’s Spirit to entrench itself all the more forcefully. It’s His gift to us. And consequently the transformation we so desperately need has the chance to take root all the deeper and just that much sooner.
Acceptance. It’s the very foundation of God’s redeeming power. Without it transformation is impossible. From glory to glory, you ask? Yes, we are to be changed into the very image of Jesus Himself! It’s what our life in Christ is all about.
Attempting to gain acceptance with God by our own goodness merely results in dependence on law as the basis for our righteousness. But it goes without saying that earning our own way with God is at best an exercise in futility. For this reason, God, knowing the limitations of our flesh, resolved this issue once and for all by laying in us a foundation of holiness—His holiness. And only on such a foundation can a life pleasing to Him be built. It’s God’s exclusive platform for growth and transformation.
So we’ve got to get over the idea that being a Christian means having the power in and of ourselves to increase our holiness. Rather, this new life in Christ is all about God’s Spirit interacting with our own so that we are now capable of making godly choices. And godly choices is what cultivates the transformation of our character.
Given the fact that we can never gain God’s acceptance through our own efforts to become more holy, just what is our responsibility toward seeing that holiness (sanctification) comes to full fruition in our life? Well, obviously the duty to live our life in a manner pleasing to God is the first step. But what’s our next step—how do we to go about pursuing it?
Our mindset is the answer to this question. Paul exhorts believers to “set your minds on the things above,” and assures them that “the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”(Colossians 1:1-3, Romans 8:6) After all, that’s what godliness is: devotion which is characterized by an attitude toward doing that which pleases God. And make no mistake about it: both devotion and attitude are choices made by an act of our will.