on being eager for perfection

Dec 27, 2004 12:54

there is a small and perpetual hum of anxiety in my heart.
do you have this?
it only fades when i pray. sometimes it will go away completely.
this is what i know as the peace that passes understanding.
this is a huge motivation to prayer for me.

in Romans, Paul is repeating over and over again in different ways why it is not only possible but mandatory to be saved by grace and yet motivated to sin less. I didnt see that his description of creation's longing for our full adoption was another way of proving the true Christians desire for sanctification until i spent literally hours just staring at it.

I had to write a paper on it. I dont normally stare at passages i dont understand for hours on end. I assume that theres nothing new there, and that it cant be understood any more than it is. Wrong I am.

So Paul describes our hope- it is definite. It is founded on what we know will happen in the future. We have been adopted and someday we will be with our Father- face to face. When we see him, we will be like him. And John says, let everyone who has this hope, this great hope of seeing the glory of God and being adopted and our status as his redeemed kids being shown to the whole world, the hope that when we see him in his perfection, we will be made perfect, pure, let those that hope in this future purify themselves NOW.

So his question to those who would say, "if salvation is not by our sinlessness, and our sin makes his grace greater, lets keep on sinning to make his grace greater" is this: How can we claim to have a sure hope for that kind of future and eternity, and contradict our hope by living opposite of what that future will be like? If our hope for heaven is that we will be pure and see the glory of God, and if hope is eager expectation, lets live as close to that future as we can. He has given us the capacity. We are no longer slaves to sin. Actually, we are slaves to righteousness.

Even further: By this hope we were saved. Anyone who is saved has this hope for the future. And if we are eagerly awaiting this great future, it will change the way we live now. Those who are saved will live like it.

Thinking about this has really increased my hope for the future a lot. I mean, I know, heaven is great and i'm going there. But for one thing, my adoption will be "consummated" so to speak. I'm his daughter now, but then i will see him, then i will be like him, then I will touch him and be held by him, and recieve the inheritance of his presence.
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