April 12, 2006          Helpless to Be Holy       Kathleen Maples

Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Rom 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written. The just shall live by faith.

The Gospel of Christ is good news for fallen mankind. It's good news to every lost soul in the world who will receive it. It's the force, the might, the strength of God to save those who will believe his message, and receive it. Consider this: if the CEO of Microsoft entrusted you with a message that he was going to set up a trust fund for all of his employee's children, that would be good news, wouldn't it? Of course this is all just a supposition on my part, to illustrate a point. But what if he did that? And what if he said, in order to obtain the inheritance, the heirs had to believe it, and keep it. What if his only condition was that the heirs could not work for the competition, ever? Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Well, God, in his infinite mercy, and his great love for humanity, has a message for people. First he's holy. He hates sin. But he loves the sinner. He knows the terrible consequences sin wreaks on human lives, and wants to save us from that. Just as a doctor knows the awful consequences of certain behaviors such as drinking alcohol or doing drugs, on the human body, because he's studied the human body, and knows it well, God who created the body and the soul, knows the result of sin.

Jam 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

For those who receive the incredible message God has, what joy awaits them. Think of it, that alone is incredible. To think, the One who owns everything, has everything, more riches than this whole world could hold, more power than the human mind could ever begin to understand, and He has been reaching out to us for thousands of years. He sent His Son into this world, to bring us back to Himself. To make a way for us to obtain the inheritance He wants to give us. A home in heaven, with Him, His glory, His eternal, immortal life, His light, His truth, His grace, mercy, peace, compassion, gentleness, His wisdom, and holiness, all of who He is He's made a way that we can partake of His Divine Nature.

2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

He offers His comfort, His protection, His guidance, His wisdom, righteousness, mercy, forgiveness, salvation, eternal life, satisfaction to the hunger of every soul who has a longing unfulfilled, love that is breath-taking. Unimaginable love. He wants to have people close to Him, trusting Him, loving Him so he can bless them. I'm not talking about that deplorable doctrine that God wants people to be rich and have new cars, and houses. God thinks so little of gold, that the streets of heaven are made of it. It's under His feet. That tells me gold is not important to God. He owns it all anyway. What is important to man is abominable to God.

Luk 16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

He was talking to the Pharisees here. God had ordained the tribe of Levi to be the priests. To stand before Him and minister to Him, and also to the people. They were supposed to teach the people God's word and ways. But here, they didn't know Him themselves, so how could they teach others? The Pharisees were a bunch of self-righteous, self-serving legalistic people who coveted recognition, privilege, and power. They intimidated the people. They had no concern for their welfare or souls. How wonderfully merciful of God to come down in the flesh, and show the world how wrong mankind had it, and who He really was. What love is this that He would offer so much to us-for eternity which our minds can't comprehend, in return for our living a few measly decades for Him, His purposes, and will. What is 70 or 80 years compared to eternity and to spend our lives serving One who loves us and offers us so much of Himself? There is, after all, nothing better than Himself. What an awesome God. Don't you think you need to get to know HIM better? I know I do! On our own, we are truly helpless to be holy as He commanded us to be. But by His might, by His power, and by His strength and His Holy Spirit, HE can make us what we could never be ourselves. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!