Leaves me in awe…
Posted on 23. Jan, 2010 by William Jacobson in Christian Living
What God saved me from is amazing. Only he could perform such a miracle. To think that I was in complete rebellion. A prisoner, if you will, to hate and rebellion towards God.
I mean did I literally shake my fist towards the sky to show my contempt for the Almighty? Most assuredly not. It was the fact that I spent my entire child hood all the way up to 19 years of age trying to be “good enough”. Trying to say all the right things and trying my hardest to get right. What a stinkin slap in the face of a thrice holy God. To even think that I could in any way influence His will by my own effort was a downright punch to the gut of the King. I grew up in a protestant church. I knew the term “Faith Alone. Or “Only Faith” or even the phrase “Works don’t save you, faith does.” I knew those sayings and I preached them to many people. But I knew nothing of it. Why? Well for one I believed salvation was a choice or “decision” if you will. And on top of that I knew you could lose your salvation if your not careful. Growing up I thought I lost my salvation literally over 50 times. No lie. Every night I would pray for God to forgive me of my sin and any sins I didn’t realize I committed, just in case. Just in case I forgot a sin, so that if I died that night I wouldn’t go to hell.
All of this is the evidence for my hate for God. He would offer me grace upon grace and I would spit in His face. Why? Because it was too good to be true. Too much charity for me. So I rejected it. Pretty much mocking the bloody sacrifice that Christ made for me. A sacrifice that said emphatically, “YOU CAN NEVER BE GOOD ENOUGH. YOUR WICKED AND EVIL AND I HATE YOUR REBELLION AND SIN! But because I love my name so much and I love you, I WILL DO IT FOR YOU! I WILL PAY THE PENALTY THAT YOU ARE REQUIRED TO PAY!”
At 19, I realized that Jesus bought my soul. He did it and it was finished. God granted me repentance and I have never been the same since. I can’t even explain how that makes me feel. I want to sing. I want to sing loud to the Lord.
He bought me. Liberated me. Redeemed me. Ransomed me. Forgave me. Clothed me. Chose me. Justified me. Sanctified me. Will glorify me. Has loved me.
And now I love thee. Only because He loved me first.
Roger Servin
Jan 23rd, 2010
Good post bro. I like the fact that you referred to His saving you “a miracle” in the beginning of the post. I think a big problem with Christians today is that the majority of people don’t see Christ saving us as a miracle that only God is able to do. It is clouded by the falsehood that we can just make a decision for Christ, say a prayer, and be pronounced saved by the pastor who is preaching. The Spirit’s work is severely downplayed, thus not seen as an miracle or impossibility apart from God’s electing grace!
Praise God for revealing our own sinfulness to us when we are saved and for continuing to show us more and more, causing us to live lives in keeping with repentance.
K. Tanner Barfield
Jan 24th, 2010
Awesome. I wanna do something similar to this. I think all participants in the blog should!
Les Lanphere
Jan 25th, 2010
Yep, I was thinking the same thing. Great testimony. When I finally get around to the about page, we could each link to our testimony story. What do you guys think?
William Jacobson
Jan 25th, 2010
I like the idea.
Roger Servin
Jan 28th, 2010
Go for it!
Monica
Mar 28th, 2011
Wow…. that sounds like my life. Glory be to God for opening my eyes to my works based religion and changing my life. Thanks for sharing this!