A Crazy Story and a Choice

The gospel is such a ludicrous story! How can it be that the Lord of the Universe would send His only begotten Son to die for sinful men who were still in rebellion against Him? How can it be true that God would love the world so much that He would send His Son to save us from slavery to sin and death? What kind of God kills Himself for people who do not love Him? But the story doesn’t end there. It’s crazier than that. He died so that the traitorous rebels would become His very own children. He didn’t die just to save us from something, but to save us TO something.

It was His pleasure to crush His Son to bring many sons to glory. By destroying one Son He has paid the price for the rebels and has gone even farther by welcoming them into His own family. What kind of King welcomes those who have rebelled against Him, and violently so, into His own family and then invites them to share His glory, to reign with Him. For that is what He does! He invites us to reign with Him. The only thing that He requires is that we believe. Even the faith that we lack He will provide if we but ask Him. We must believe that He exists and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. We must cry out, “I believe. Help me with my unbelief.”

Why is it so easy to believe that I am a miserable sinner in need of grace and so hard to remember that I am royalty? I have been grafted into the tree of life, adopted into the household of God. I have been anointed as a royal priest. I have been invested with authority to reign with Him. He reigns over all the earth, and we are called to be a part of His divine administration of the Kingdom. He has given us everything that we need for life and godliness, but I rarely lay claim to the wisdom, power and authority that are mine for the asking. Instead I lay claim to my sinful identity and my inadequacy and live disempowered and discouraged.

What a paradox am I!? I am both sinful and holy, both traitorous and royal, both powerless and powerful. I must choose to believe God and to reckon on His faithfulness to finish the work that He has begun in me. He has exchanged my life, my works for His. Old things have passed away. Behold! New things have come. My believing the lie that I am incapable does not change the fact that I really can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. My continuing to believe the lie that keeps me down in the mud is so tragic when compared with the glorious truth of my redemption and my identity in Christ.

I have spent so much time and energy lamenting my sinful past and the ever present fleshly tendencies of my own heart. Today, I choose to believe the unbelievable truth that I am a prince in the household of God! I have been chosen to suffer with Him and to reign with Him. While no good thing dwells in my flesh, I have been chosen and exalted. I will reign forever with Him and am even now seated in heaven and kept by His power and promise.

I choose not to live with my head down on my chest. I choose to no longer regard myself, or anyone else, from a worldly perspective. I am a new man in Christ and a chosen ambassador to carry this message to others. He is making His appeal to the nations, to my neighbors, to my family through me. Nothing is impossible with Christ. I choose to reign with Him today, to listen for and obey His commands, to tune my heart to His voice. I pledge my allegiance to Heaven. My Father, the King, has purchased me back from my slavery to sin and to death with the blood of His first born Son. He who did not spare His own Son will give me all that I need today. I choose to believe Him and to live in this reality today.