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Do I feel the assurance that I have been redeemed of my sins?
Have you heard the story of the mischievous little boy who wants a little brother for Christmas? He was about eight years old and decided the best strategy for achieving his goal is to write a letter to God pleading his case.
First Draft: “Dear God, I really want a little brother and I’m always good, so. . . .” No, that wasn’t quite right. He wasn’t always good and God was sure to know it. So he crumpled the paper and began again.
Second Draft: “Dear God, I really want a little brother and since I’m good most of the time. . . .” That wasn’t exactly true either. His past behavior presented a challenge in making a believable appeal. He crumpled up that letter too and sat down in a quandary.
As he wrestled with his problem, his eye caught the family nativity set displayed on the table. With a flash of inspiration, he dashed out of the room and returned with a white linen napkin. Very gently, he lifted the little ceramic figure of Mary from the manger scene and carefully wrapped her in the linen cloth. Placing the wrapped figure in front of him, he eagerly started a new letter.
“Dear God, if you ever want to see your Mother again. . . .” Ha!
Maybe this is an extreme example, but we’ve all probably done something like this before where we tried to negotiate with God. Sometimes we beg, sometimes we promise, sometimes we plead, and sometimes we bargain, trying to convince God to do something based on our merit or promises of future goodness. However, these things don’t work. Not because God is unreachable or unpleasable or doesn’t care about our requests. No, these things don’t work because God doesn’t work like that! And when we resort to such things, it shows that we really do not have a clear understanding of God at all.
Here are the facts:
1.You can’t cajole, bribe, manipulate, or sweet-talk God into doing things for you.
2.You don’t have to.
Some years ago, Andy Stanley wrote a little book called How Good Is Good Enough? The premise of the book is that none of us can be good enough to earn God’s attention, grace, or love. No one. But the good news is, we don’t have to. Jesus did that for us. What we cannot earn, Jesus gives us as a gift—salvation, forgiveness, adoption, and friendship with God.
Please don’t misunderstand or get the wrong impression about God. He’s not an old curmudgeon that Jesus has to convince to tolerate us. No. We were separated from God by our sin. So God made a plan. He would rescue us, atone for us, and bring us back to God, by the sacrificial death of his Son Jesus.
If we seek assurance that we have been redeemed of our sins, we need look no further than the sacrifice of Christ and our experience of this gift of salvation.
John Wesley preached a sermon about “the almost Christian”—people going through the motions but lacking a depth of faith and love in their heart. I have to wonder if “almost Christians” are implicitly trying to earn favor with God by being nice instead of trusting wholly in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. I suppose some people have an “almost Christmas” too. Sometimes we go through the motions. We wrap the presents. We decorate the tree. But friends, please don’t miss Jesus. He loves you. God loves you! Christmas is about God sending his son on a rescue mission. We were the hostages and Jesus came to set us free, to save us, to forgive us, to adopt us into his family and give us a new relationship with God. Do you feel the assurance of that? Do you feel it as a free gift, not something to be earned but something already received, something to be celebrated?
The little boy writing the letter to God missed it. He did not yet understand how much God loves him. I hope you don’t miss Christmas this year. God loves you! Jesus came on a rescue mission so that you can be accepted and loved and adopted and forgiven. Merry Rescue Mission!
Rev. Jim Cowart