Once, or maybe twice or thrice, I thought of the Bible as a big paddle. I would arrive in church and the pastor would paddle me with the Word. Surely I was going to Hell with behavior such as mine. There was no way that I could make the grade; every Sunday brought another spanking, each Wednesday night another time of sore spiritual buttocks. The Bible even agreed with me. "For there is none righteous, no, not one," it said, just before another paddling for the thou shalt not's that I had shalt, at least in thought if not in deed. The thought life was wicked beyond all reason, and the Word agreed with me on that too, letting me know that my heart was desperately wicked and wondering who could know it. Then Romans came and a solution presented itself - just get rid of the body and the 'heart' can live in perfect behavior, ready to be fully qualified to receive Heaven. Weird how those disembodied 'hearts' went around Heaven in the Revelation complaining about whens and how soons.
It takes every new Christian of whatever age a long time to come to grips with grace, salvation, holiness, and imputed righteousness. We can get a lot of things wrong along the way. God sent a message of His love and delight, but in our original sin we often see all the worst parts and none of the good in the Bible. We see the depravity of our sin, but fail to take in the cure that Jesus worked in our behalf on the cross. We begin to know the wickedness of the heart, but don't quite get the grace of God through Jesus Christ. We still feel the urge to self-justify, self-save, and try with all our might to be self-righteous when Jesus alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This is why Jesus gave the command to make disciples of all the nations and sent the Holy Spirit to remind us of His Word. The Word that says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
Bucky
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