"You may have already known that your sin debt was paid by Jesus Christ, but if you haven't known your identity in Christ, you probably haven't experienced much freedom. When a Christian mistakenly believes that he is nothing more than a sinner saved by grace, he will wrap his life up in rules. He thinks that rules will produce a greater quality of spiritual living but, in reality, as Romans 7:10 tells us, religious rules always prove "to result in death." "A sinner saved by grace"--what a pitiful description of a person who possesses the very life of Jesus Christ! God prefers to call you a saint. That's how He refers to you 63 times in the New Testament. Why would a Christian want to identify himself by the word sinner when Jesus came to save him from his sin? God sees saints who sin, but He doesn't identify you as a sinner who is saved."
I have been on a rather difficult internal journey the past few years. God has been purging me from many lies that I have believed, specifically those in relation to how the world sees me (or how I think the world views me) vs. how He sees me.
I have high expectations for myself. I expect myself to be able to do everything right.
I can't.
There is not one single thing that I can do right. Because you see, I have tried to do everything myself. I have tried to fix things, change things, understand things. I have tried so long and now finally understand that I have been trying all this time by myself when Jesus has been right next to me the entire time. He's the only one who can truly fix me. All my efforts have been in vain.
I have thought that since I'm still broken that I must still be a sinner, even though Jesus has redeemed me. I seem to think that I'm not fully redeemed because I'm not fixed, because I still fail. This thinking seems to be ingrained in me that unless everything is perfect and I do everything perfect then I will be perfect before Christ.
This is not what the Bible teaches. Jesus did not say He came alongside the healthy to make them more well. He said He came to call the sick for they are the ones who need a physician. The sinners, not the righteous. (Mark 2:15-17)
I have come face to face with the fact that I am broken. My life is not perfect. And that is OK!
In the spring of 2001 He called me and I answered. Yet I have been living as if I need to do so many things to gain His approval. That I need to be able to conquer so many of my sins before I'm "fixed."
I now see that I am so very broken and I can't fix myself at all. God sees me as redeemed anyway, because I am covered with the shed blood of Jesus. He sees me a saint.
I do not have to fix myself. I don't have to do anything.
Steve McVey continues with "God's plan is for the believer to trust the Holy Spirit to animate His behavior. He doesn't need rules, but enjoys freedom."
Set free.
That is what I am.
No rules, no trying.
Just being ok with my brokenness and not rejecting myself as a failure.
It isn't my strength that is getting me through this life but that of the grace of God, because I can't do this alone. The credit goes to what is in the vessel, not the vessel itself.
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So, with all this being said, I need to change the title of my blog. My web address is redeemedbyjesus.blogspot but my title is "Reflections of a Redeemed Sinner."
I'm not really sure what I want to change it to. That will take some more reflecting...
