Sin, Salvation and Grace

For someone who in the most technical sense possible has been a Christian for a very long time, I feel like a complete infant. I'm still flailing around, not even walking, maybe barely crawling. Although I believe wholeheartedly that Jesus is Lord and that he died a sacrificial death in human form and was resurrected as the Son of God that He is, I still find myself questioning alot of other things in the Bible. I still, for example, find it hard to believe that God spoke directly to the authors of the Bible over 2,000 years ago and has not spoken directly to anyone else since then. That's why it's easy to conceivably believe that God or Jesus actually did speak to the authors, as they claim, of books like "A Course In Miracles" and "Conversations With God". There is much in these books that seems to have a ring of truth to it, but ultimately, I cannot give my whole support to the fact that these books came from God. While I have some of the same problems with the Bible, I continue to support its long history and support from millions worldwide as the Truth, even as I continue to struggle with it. Admittedly, I can't say that I've really studied the Bible enough in earnest to fully come to any kind of understanding of it.

A good friend reminded me that the Bible is a living word and for me that means that when I read passages from the Bible while in communion with God, understanding and meaning will flow forth as it applies to me personally. My God is a personal God and I know that His greatest desire is to have me come to know Him more and more, not to hide or withhold His truths from me. One good idea that came out of the first few pages of "Conversations With God" and that I think is supported by the Bible is that God reveals Himself through inward experience not outward appearance. Although God is everywhere and in all that I see, I won't find God outside of myself. God is deep within me, in the very fabric of the cells that make up my being, and always has been, just waiting for me to invite Him to be an everyday part of my life.

Paul says in Romans, before Jesus there was the Law, and the Law seemed to enhance the fact that we are sinners (which to me simply means that we are all prone in our earthly human state to act imperfectly) by pointing out to us what sin was. Though the laws were good and meant to bring us the life we were incapable of having as long as we engaged in unrighteous behavior, it also emphasized the fact that we were slaves to sin as the temptations were too great to resist while we fought the slavery on our own. Reminding me of one of my previous posts ("Why Are We So Afraid?"), Paul also says that being a slave to sin means being a slave to fear. In other words, the world had us all in its lethal grip and we were dying as it was virtually impossible to live the laws while in the grips of slavery to sin.

But God's perfect plan and grace brought forth a perfect balance in the universe in that, as Paul says, one man's act of sin (Adam) brought forth the condemnation of many but one other's obedience (Jesus) made righteousness of many! Jesus, through God's grace, made a bridge for us to God so that we are no longer slaves to sin. God's Spirit tempers our sinful natures and leads us instead into loving and righteous behavior which allows us to experience LIFE! When I think of the wages of sin being death, I think more of spiritual death than the corporeal kind and, indeed, a spiritual death is far more devastating to me. By being corporeally alive but spiritually dead for an eternity is to know there will never be any hope, any love, any companionship, any peace. But spiritual life through Jesus means joy, pure and unending love without boundaries or limitations and serenity on a scale that I can't even imagine.