Under Grace

Once again I'm slam dunked by conviction. I can't stop making good things ultimate things! I do not sufficiently call sin what it is, acknowledge without explanation or defense and see it forgiven through the cross of Christ. “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law but under grace.” Romans 6:14

4 years ago I stood on the beach near my cousins home in Maui, struck by this same overwhelming weight of sin. Immobilized until I remembered Micah 7:18-20, I then began picking up stones and tossing them into the ocean (lame "you throw like a girl" flings with very little skip-age but they did made it in the water!) remembering Schaeffer's words on moment by moment practice of 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." So I must consider this image again tonight: Katie, God cast your sins into the depths of the sea - past tense. The debt has been paid in full so stop dragging it around with you! How much time you waste feeling sorrowful, time better spent in worship! (yes I like speaking to myself in the 3rd person, what?)

Schaeffer said it better, "I call the specific sin sin; I claim the finished work of Christ; I can say, “Thank you” to God, and my conscience can be at rest. Let us notice that in this process the real guilt is not overlooked, it is not swept under the rug. Real guilt is placed in a completely rational framework and it is met within the framework, with intellect and feelings of morality meeting each other, without any fracture between them. With all rationality in place, and consciously in place (on the basis of the existence of God and the finished, substitutionary work of Jesus Christ) my real guilt now is not overlooked, but is accepted as my responsibility because of my own deliberately doing what I know to be wrong. Then it is reasonably, truly and objectively dealt with in Christ’s infinite substitutionary work. Now I can say to my conscience, be still!"




“Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
Because he delights in steadfast love.

He will again have compassion on us;
He will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and steadfast love to Abraham,
As you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.”

Micah 7:18-20