I’m going to start out this blog post with a confession…I had this wrong for so long, instead of ‘positive encouragement’ I’ve been calling it ‘personal encouragement.’ So how about I personally give you some positive encouragement? Okay? Thanks for agreeing, I shall do that then!
The Bad News
Like what Dad wrote about last week, the one main encouragement I can give you is to take a look at your life, how do you measure up to God’s standard. Now I know I fall way way short, but what about you? To be honest, I already know the answer, the Bible has told me “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). I’m guessing that you are a part of the “all” in this situation because, well, the last time I checked, all means all. Is falling short such a bad thing? Aren’t we all humans who just make mistakes? Yes, is the answer to both of those questions. Yes, we all make mistakes (the Bible calls it sin because it’s a serious thing) and yes it is such a bad thing. If there were no God it wouldn’t be a bad thing, or if God were not a good God it wouldn’t be a bad thing either, but in fact, there IS a God, and He IS good. Because He is good He must punish that which is not good (sin) which we have all committed, you can call them mistakes if you want, but we call it what God calls it, sin.
Now I know you’re thinking, “I thought this was supposed to be encouraging” but before I could encourage you to do the right thing, I first need to show you the wrong thing. We’ve already seen that we have fallen short. The encouragement comes now…what do you do with that information? Do you keep on smiling and pretend it’s not true? Or worse, pretend there is no God and no standard? Do you acknowledge this truth and then try harder to be better? These are the most common two options most people are confronted with, but let me encourage you with the third option: God’s option. The Bible tells us plainly that we have all sinned, we’ve already seen that, but what does it have to say about the remedy? Believe it or not, the Bible DOES NOT condone self-help or effort to try and makes things better. The very next verse and those following Romans 3:23 tell us the remedy. I will quote from verse 23 again to get the flow of what’s being said:
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.”
The Good News
We are all equally sinners who fall short of God’s glory, but we are also all able to receive the free gift of redemption in Christ. It has to be just that; it is something we have to receive, not earn. It is a gift and will always be a gift, we receive the gift by faith, or we refuse the gift and are left to suffer the consequences of our own actions and inability to right the wrongs done in life. So back to the encouragement, please don’t fall into the trap that the vast majority of people fall into; don’t bury your head in the sand and hope this will all go away. On the flip side, don’t try and fix it on your own, the Lord will not accept ignorance or self-righteousness as an option for justifying your sinfulness. He will, however, willingly and gladly do it for you. In fact, He already has! The last part of the quoted Scripture speaks about Christ Jesus being a propitiation for our sin. In other words, Christ appeased the wrath of God. He paid the penalty for the sin we committed, and justice was served; with Jesus being the One condemned instead of you and me. Why then do some people still go to hell? If Christ paid the penalty, surely everyone is set free? Not quite. There is still the aspect of “receiving” the gift. If you don’t accept God’s gift of salvation and continue living the way you are or continue trying to earn God’s gift, you will continue to fall short until you fall right into eternity without God. We are told to trust in Christ alone. That means to let go of any “righteousness” you may think you have and to lay ahold of the righteousness of Christ by faith. Repent, turn away and forsake that which is displeasing to God (sin) and turn to Christ Jesus to save you. That is the only encouragement I could give you. Without that, as the author of the book of Ecclesiastes says “all is vanity and a striving after wind.”
Final Encouragement
On the flip side if you have already come to Christ for salvation then I want to encourage you to live in this truth. Let’s, all of us, cease to strive after the wind. Stop seeking that which is perishable and start seeking for that which is imperishable.
