In faith I came to Jesus for salvation. From that gift, I expected the desire to sin to have gone away by now, but it has not. You have probably felt a little of that, even as you know intellectually that it doesn't work that way. We might ask in a moment of stress: if salvation is such a gimme, why don't it seem to gotme? Perhaps any of us would ask the question in a more educated form, but we must admit to asking something rather like that at times.
The carnal person inside is a part of us from conception. We don't know the day when Jesus will remove all temptation and desire to sin. The day is somewhere in our future, but it was not promised in this life. Even the disciples were heard to ask Jesus, "Who then can be saved?" At the time, Jesus had not yet died for all sins so that many could be saved. The answer to the question for all time is Jesus. Our part of the salvation deal is faith.
Faith tells us that Jesus took care of salvation at the cross. Faith did not say that the point of salvation would remove all desire to sin. We are still human and still living in this world. The carnal person inside is not nice to us. He or she desires, we should say 'lusts', for a great many things that we know are against the law, God's law that is. Why not remove all desire to sin? That is not our question to answer. Faith also reassures us that God has some use for this carnal desire we feel. Perhaps to remind us of where we came from before salvation. Without our carnal desire, we might be tempted to feel superior to our fellow sinners who are not yet saved by Christ. The times we fall remind us that we are no better than anyone else, we just have a better Savior.
I don't have to feel the gimme of salvation. I just have to remember that the Savior gots me. Salvation was never mine to perform. That is why I cannot grab a hold of it. I must in faith trust God to hold me. I am 'gotten', even though it doesn't feel that way at times.
The grace and mercy of Christ Jesus to you on this fine day,Bucky
No comments:
Post a Comment