Recovering Redemption
by
Matt Chandler and Michael Snetzer
Last week in part one, we talked about the bad news and the good news of the gospel. The bad news is we can’t earn it, and the good news is we don’t have to. So why do we keep trying?
You have no shot at experiencing real change in life if you’re habitually protecting your image. @MattChandler74 #RecoveringRedemption #TheHeartoftheAuthor #podcast Click To TweetIt’s human nature to want to be self-reliant. It’s pride — the root of all sin — that makes us keep trying to earn approval from others and from God. We want to be good. We want to think that what we do pleases Him and that we deserve the good gifts He gives us. That is not the gospel.
The idea that “good little boys and girls go to Heaven” is popular but unbiblical. In reality, it is sinners transformed by the gospel of Christ who go to Heaven. He changes us, so that we live to please God not to earn our way in, but as an expression of worship and gratitude that we are already redeemed.
Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” – Galatians 3:11
We need to keep the gospel securely in our heads. We can’t find satisfaction in anything but God, and we don’t need validation from anyone but Him. Because of His acceptance of us, we can walk in perfect balance of humility and confidence — not self-confidence, but confidence in Christ and His redeeming grace.
God restores what cannot be restored. He takes what is broken and beyond hope, and He infuses His own life into dead spaces, not just once, but again and again, ever renewing, ever redeeming, ever satisfying. That is the gospel.
