Christ Versus Chaos
“However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
‘Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.’”
Today’s Text: Romans 4:1-8 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
The implication for us—for ME—is that I am ungodly through and through.. And it is by grace that God has helped me to understand this foundational truth. Because without knowing, acknowledging, and believing that there is nothing good in me through and through, I cannot really have a share in the gospel that saves me.
And the resistance that we put up against that truth through our attitudes, through our thoughts, through our words, and through our actions proves that it is beyond dispute and beyond denial. Or more likely, the lack of resistance we put up against that truth, succumbing to it like the need for water, proves that it is beyond dispute and beyond denial.
Until I see that truth in myself and fight it with the truth of God’s word and the enabling of the Holy Spirit, I will continue to contribute to the “snowball” of sin in history and in our communities that only leads to destruction, ruin, and death.
Until we see that truth in ourselves and fight it with the power of the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will continue to perpetuate a pedigree, performance, and profit oriented culture in our churches.
Fostering a pedigree, performance, and profit oriented culture goes against the word of God. Fostering a pedigree, performance, and profit oriented culture is the way of the world, not the way of Christ. Fostering a pedigree, performance, and profit oriented culture is destroying our churches.
And it is a pedigree, performance, and profit oriented culture that is destroying our world today. Wars continue to blaze all around the world—not just in the Middle East and in Ukraine. There is violent unrest happening now in the Philippines, in Indonesia, in Nepal, and in other places.
And most people might think that all of that chaos has nothing to do with ME. But all that chaos is the manifestation of the “snowball” of sin in history and in our communities that we all contribute to.
Is that discouraging? It ought to be. But our encouragement is that there is hope out of that mess. And that hope is not the “best practices” of the world.
There is only one hope: Jesus Christ. And not “Jesus Christ” as nothing more than a banner waved for the sake of perpetuating a pedigree, performance, and profit oriented culture. But Jesus Christ in ME. Jesus Christ in ME today.
Our only hope is Jesus Christ in ME that cares for, respects, and loves every individual person. That is the witness that our Lord Jesus Christ demands from ME.
Father, You are perfect and sovereign, but this world is such a mess. And if we can be genuine in our thinking, our churches are a mess. Show us Your way. Teach us Your way. Transform our hard hearts that they may be fertile for Your word and bear the fruit of love. Let it begin with me. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
