The limited power of the law

"While the law guides, it does not give. It has the power to reveal sin but not the power to remove sin. It simply cannot engender what it commands. The law shows us what godliness is, but it cannot make us godly like the gospel can. The law shows us what a sanctified life looks like, but it does not have sanctifying power as the gospel does. So, apart from the gospel, the law crushes. The law shows us what to do. The Gospel announces what God has done. The law directs us, but only the gospel can drive us. It’s very important to keep these distinctions in mind.

The operative power that makes you a Christian is the same operative power that keeps you a Christian: the unconditional, unqualified, undeserved, unrestrained grace of God in the completed work of Christ. As I said, the banner under which Christians live reads, “It is finished.” So relax, and rejoice… You’re free!"

Tullian Ttchividjian
From Jesus + Nothing = Everything 
thanks to Mockingbird blog for the link...

I want you to friend me. NO! I demand it!

We finally got around to seeing The Social Network. It’s the 40 percent true story of the beginnings of facebook.com and a fascinating study of human nature; in particular our overdeveloped sense of entitlement.

**Spoiler Alert**

The movie reveals the plot by flicking between past events and the inevitable court case. Basically the Winklevoss brothers sue Mark Zuckerberg for stealing their social networking website idea. It appears Mark Z started his own social networking website whilst employed to create one for the Winklevosses. Mark Z claims his “The Facebook” bears little resemblance to the idea the Winklevosses had pitched to him, but they try to sue him anyway. 

All of us have a sense of entitlement; that is, what we think the world owes us. It’s easy to deny it until someone uses your idea first then makes a shed-load of money out of it. Thanks to the legal system, you can try to get what you think you deserve even though you did no work to earn it. As the US Circuit Court of Appeals said when the Winklevosses’ appeal failed this year "The Winklevosses are not the first parties bested by a competitor who then seek to gain through litigation what they were unable to achieve in the marketplace” 

Human entitlement rears its ugly head with regards to God also. When we get sick, lose a job, lose a family member, become victims of a natural disaster etc, our first reaction is to cry out “Why me God? I don’t deserve this! Why do bad things happen to good people? How could you allow this to happen to me God?” We believe we are good and so God owes us only good things. In reality we are not good and God owes us nothing (just ask Job). Shocking I know! 

We live at God’s mercy. Every breath we take is because He allows it. Every good thing God has given us is because He is gracious, merciful, kind and patient. His goodness towards ungrateful human beings is shown to us in His Son Jesus Christ. Imagine if Mark Z gave Facebook to the Winklvosses (valued in 2010 at $41 billion). He would be broke, and they would be richer than you or I can ever imagine. So much more than this, Jesus Christ gave up everything He was entitled to (His place in heaven where He owned the whole world), to come and be born beside an animal feeding trough, to suffer and be killed at the hands of His own creation, so that He could give us something we don’t deserve – forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Him.

Rugby is all right

From an article written by my Hub at the cross-eyed blog:

 "The press will say “New Zealand Won!” but the country didn’t actually do anything. It was those 15 men who represented the rest of us. They were the ones who broke through the strong defense. They were the ones who held back the strong offence. They were the ones who scored the try and the penalty kick needed to win the game. All we could do was watch and cheer them on, and yet we somehow receive the glory. New Zealand wins! The All Blacks represented us, and we all receive the spoils!

In Christianity this is known as ‘Imputed Righteousness’. A big fancy term that just means – Jesus won the game for us! God’s standards are high. He expects us to be perfect; to never sin; in short - to love God above everything else, and to love others more than we love ourselves. If we are honest then we know we are unfit for the kingdom of God. We don’t have a chance. The sin team is wiping the floor with us."

...now click on the link above and read the good news at the end of the article!