Showing posts with label Salvation. Show all posts

So, a year has past since my dear friend, Elizabeth, introduced me to the idea of "Thanksvember" (taking the whole month to express thanks). I think it's such a grand idea that I'll attempt to be thankful daily again this year. Join me if you like.

This year, I thought I'd start on the spiritual side and be thankful for the most important part of my life on the very first day. That's right, I'm thankful for Jesus. I remain daily thankful because God gave us His Son. I'm thankful that that Son lived a sinless life and then proceeded to pay the death penalty for my sin. That's right, the death penalty. Not just any death penalty, though. Ultimate death. This was much worse than the physical passage that we know here on earth, but the complete separation from the Life that is found in the presence of God Almighty. (Henry Blackaby refers to this as "deeper death", see Experiencing the Cross chapter 5, especially page 46.)

The great news about this, though, is that in living a sinless life and tasting death for my sake, Jesus conquered sin and death itself. I know this because He rose from the dead and then defeated the Grave! I could say that because He did this for me (actually for anyone and everyone who would believe) and that because I have believed it receiving the everlasting life promised in the New Testament is the reason that I or anyone else might even have the hope of being thankful at all.

So, I am thankful for Jesus. And I can be even more thankful for Him every time I hear that someone new has believed and received, and therefore been made thankful.

On this final day of Thanksvember, I have decided to save the very best for the climactic moment:

#30: I am thankful for LIFE in Jesus Christ.

At the ripe old age of six years, having lived all my life in the home of a Baptist minister, I said, "Yes," to Jesus Christ. Why? because I am a sinner, falling short of God's design for my life. The only way, according to Scripture, for me to "make the grade" was to accept the payment Christ made on the Cross some 2000 years ago. And so I did. I've learned that I cannot be good enough, work hard enough, or pay dearly enough to earn the Life that is available simply by accepting the substitutionary payment Jesus made on the Cross.

The payment is sufficient for a couple of reasons: Jesus was not marred by the sin that corrupts the lives of all other humans. Secondly, Jesus was not defeated by that execution. Instead He rose again conquering Death for all of time and eternity. The way to this salvation? Through Him (for a more detailed description of how to have this LIFE, click here). I would love for you to say, "Yes," to my Jesus today.

For this I am fully thankful.