Chew on this today. This is Ephesians 2:3-5 from the paraphrase, The Message:

It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

God was not obligated to anything except His own pleasure and nature. One of the characteristics of God’s nature is holiness. God is so very, very different (a definition of holiness) that He cannot and will not have sin coexist with Him. He will not allow the warping (sin) of His great design to go unpunished. He demands absolute perfection to qualify an entity to be with Him forever. Absolute perfection.

Enter man. Enter our nature. Naturally, we give God the finger. It may not look that way to us. Regardless, when we choose self over Christ, we are telling God what His place is over our life.

Our arrogance and God’s mercy is pictured in Isaiah 53:6,

All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
BUT the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. (emphasis mine)

We all turn to our OWN way.
But. BUT. BUT! But God placed our rebellion upon Him/Christ.

He was not obligated to do this. His only obligation was to be consistent to His own character. That means justice for rebels. So what does God do? God metes out justice. That justice either fairly falls upon us or unfairly falls/fell upon Christ.

God did not have to do this. Actually it is unthinkable that He would do it. He did. He did it because it pleased Him. He did it because it brings glory to Himself. He loves being the Rescuer of the helpless.

You were helpless. Some of you may still be spiritually helpless in need of rescue. Turn to Christ.

Read the passage again:
It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

From “sin-dead” to “highest heaven.” He was not obligated. Amazing grace!

–
David Thew
Sojourn Founding Pastor

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David Thew
Sojourn Pastor
Thewblog