Thoghts to provoke our adoration of Jesus…

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. ²⁴  Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. ²⁵  For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, Romans 3:23-25 (NLT2)

Consciously or subconsciously, the fear that God is far away, absent, doing something more important than paying attention to me, or that he is so mad at me he won’t even look at me, fills the imagination of peace-challenged followers of Jesus. Our actual understanding of God the Father—not what we think we should believe—is a reliable indicator of our ability to live in peace and pass it on to others.

As I’ve looked at the life of Martin Luther, I see a trememendous change in him. We talk about him as the father of the Reformation, but you won’t have the reformation, or the equally important counter reformation, without the real reformation, the transformation that occurs as the Holy Spirit circumcises his heart, and cuts away all that is not of God. (see Colossians 2:11)

Without that, without what happens when Luther reads the passage above from Romans, there is no peace in his heart, there is not relationship with God, and the Reformation (and the Counter-Reformaiton) would mean nothing.

Everything abotu Christianity depends on the cross and Christ’s death there. For that is where He freed us from the penalty of sin. When we trust this, even thoguht we don’t comprehend it, life is transformed – everything is changed, and the Spirit of God brings peace into our weary, tired souls.

We no longer have to come up with excuses, or defend what we’ve done, we rely, we depend we believe God has made it right. Everything just falls aside, as the Holy Spirit prepares us for being in intimate fellowship with God,

This was so amazing to Luther, that any anxiety, and angst he felt was not about his sin, as much as helping others be free from the burden of it. And by no means was he the only one who hasmade this a priority in preaching and ministry…

This is what it is all about….

You are free to be in a relationship with the Creator of everything… for that is what God has wanted since the Garden. It is His plan… It is His hope… it is our reality.

The Lord is with you, for He has made it happen! Rejoice!

Hunter, Todd D.. Deep Peace (p. 60). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.