Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long.
This month, we have started to work through the book of Ephesians and it has brought up a lot of questions. This is because Paul starts out by giving us a glimpse into the depths of God’s gracious redemption. Most of us aren’t used to looking at undiluted mercy. When we do, it can be a challenge for us to make sense of.
It is important for us to recognize that we are ALL uncomfortable with unconditional love. We constantly want to pull back and make God’s favor about merit because for it to be freely given gives us no control over it; to belong to God becomes nothing more than His choice. While it is hard to accept that we play no role in our salvation, there is an amazing weight that is lifted when we receive the free gift of eternal life. One of the benefits is that we join in a story that is shared with every other believer.
While every Christian has a different path – a place that they come from and where they currently sit – there is also a unity to the Christian story:
Every Christian is a sinner
While some sin may look worse than others and have greater earthly consequences, the Bible tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Every Christian is redeemed
There is no person who saves themself. When Jesus brings the dead to life, the dead have no active part in it other than rising. Every part of our new life in Christ is a response to what He has done.
Every Christian is being transformed
We are not merely saved from hell, but we are saved to life in Christ. This is what the whole letter to the Ephesians church is about. We are taking steps to be more like the one who saved us.
Every Christian will be glorified
The end of the story is the same for every believer: clothed in white linen, experiencing perfection in the presence of Jesus.
I bring this up because there is a tendency to fall back into merit-based religion when we interact with other Christians – measuring ourselves based on where we are on the holiness spectrum. Our understanding of grace quickly becomes intertwined with how well someone matches our idea of faithful Christianity. If you have been a Christian for a long time, and have been in the process of transformation for decades, you will be ahead of people who are just beginning. If you are someone who God sanctifies quickly, it is easy to look down on those who move more slowly. If you are new to the faith, it can be very intimidating to talk with people who have not only a greater knowledge of the Bible, but also how the church works. We tend to see others through the differences in our story.
I saw this as I talked to a person who was new to our church and they were concerned that they would not ‘fit’ at our church because they had a different history and are in a different place than those they shared a pew with on Sunday.
If we step back and realize that we are all saved by the same God and will all end up together in His presence, it changes how we see the differences that currently exist. Rather than worrying about where you are on the journey – in comparison with others – you can enjoy the fact that God has provided all of these people to journey with. Some who are ahead and can show the way and some who are a little further back and could use some guidance.
When our faith goes from being personal and about our story to being shared and about God’s story, it changes how we see the other Christians around us. We are all caught up in the same redemptive plan, even if we play a slightly different role within it. With this blessed assurance, we also sing the same song:
Heir of salvation,
purchase of God,
born of His Spirit,
washed in His blood.