How Much Does Purity Cost?

We live in a consumer society. Our mentality is that if we want something we believe we have the right to get it. And if we have enough resources (i.e. money) we feel we are entitled to possess whatever we wish. If it were only so easy to apply this paradigm when desiring to build solid character.

I think oftentimes we confuse salvation and sanctification. One is completely "free of charge" to us. The other requires the sacrifice of our very lives. I would like to assume you know which is which, but unfortunately for many Christians they spend the majority of their lives seeking to earn salvation, and therefore not growing in intimacy with God at all. You see, salvation costs us nothing. Jesus Christ paid the charge we owed in full through his death on the cross. There is nothing left owed on our account when it comes to the penalty of our sin. Our only responsibility is to choose whether or not we will receive this free gift of erased debt to God.

Sanctification, however, carries a much different price tag. To be sanctified is to grow in submission and surrender to the direction and control of God's Holy Spirit. It is the process of allowing God to chip away at anything that prevents us from conforming to the image of Christ and replacing it with the fruits of the Spirit. This is no easy, painless process. It involves spiritual surgery to remove pride, greed, envy, immorality, and all that hinders our spiritual growth. In short, sanctification costs us our very lives.

This is important to realize when striving to become a man or woman of purity. In order to walk every day in purity we must develop the habit of laying down our lives in submission and surrender to the One who paid it all on our behalf. And as we learn to hand over the reigns of our lives to God an amazing transference occurs. We receive in our humility the power of Christ's risen life to accomplish the very things we are unable to do on our own. He lives through us as we die to ourselves. It's an exchange you just can't beat.

I don't know about you, but I'm learning that it's not such a bad thing to lay down my life to receive in return the power and grace of God. I only wish I were more consistent in making such an unbelievable trade.

Paying the price,

jonathan

God Doesn't Need Me...

For many years as a Christian I based my worth on the statement, "God doesn't need me, therefore I have no worth." I believed this statement was true. I now realize, years later, that it is only partly true.

It is true that God doesn't need me. If God had any needs He wouldn't be God. He is completly self-sufficient and lacking in nothing. Whatever I could offer wouldn't change or "improve" God in any way. After all, He created me. So, anything I might try to give back originated with Him in the first place, so it is futile to think God could benefit in the slightest from me. However, just because He has no need of me doesn't mean I have no worth to Him.

My value to God is immeasurable. In fact, it is so great that He gave up His glory in heaven to come to earth and become like those He created in order to demonstrate His love. And not only that, He went even further by sacrificing His very life, inviting the death I deserved for my sins onto Himself, in order to provide me with His spiritual life. He proved my worth with His shed blood.

My life has been radically changed through a new statement based on the truth, "God still doesn't need me, but He wants me." That is almost too amazing to comprehend. The Creator of heaven and earth, the Alpha & Omega, the I AM wants my company. He wants me near. He longs for my companionship and affection. Does he need it? No. But to realize His heart beats for me is to know that my value and worth is beyond calculation.

And He wants you just the same...

Amazed by God's affection,

jonathan