Big and Good

"Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you."

-Jesus in John

As a Christian my life should be characterized by rejoicing and joy. I'm not to go brow beating myself and others. Plus I don't even know what that means. I'm pretty sure it has something you do with your eyebrows.

I've been rescued from the world of cause and effect. My sinful cause is met with Christ's sacrifice. I have been given the word of life, I am clean and Jesus abides in me. I have no better promise, no greater reality. God has breathed into me and I can breath deeply and be satisfied. It's good to breathe.

I have much to be happy and optimistic about, but I also have something that is deeper, richer and more profound than a lifted spirit. I have complete and concrete moral cleanness. I have right standing before the God of the universe. Surprisingly I don't even blow up or vaporize in his presence. Many mad scientists would be dissappointed.

I often forget the bigness of the Gospel. The fact that I am completely washed of all sin and completely accepted and loved by God is, umm, kind of a big deal. And in blogging about it, I write words of which I barely know the meaning. But Jesus, the word, knew the meaning and the cost. His death was worth it because he saw the Gospel bigness.

It's not about me. It's about Christ renewing the whole world. Creation's groans being met with his Christ's salve of rightness. (I just used "salve" in a sentance. I think salve means "to save with lotion.")

And it's primarily about God. He loves. He's just. He's merciful. He is good. He will be glorified. Bank on it. Better yet, invest in it, gamble on it, mortgage the house!

Out of his character flows the story of our salvation, the fountain in which we can wash and find what we've always been searching for. Personally, when I found the fountain, I dove right in and bonked my head. Which is a good thing - my pride in my self-righteousness needed to get knocked out of my silly head. Plus I'm done with giving myself self-righteous sponge baths with those horrible sea sponges forever. (And since I don't like to bathe, this is good news.)

I search everyday for salvation, whether I know it or not. Every idol I craft is an attempt at filling and finding acceptance or rightness. Jesus Christ alone is my rightness. He is my abiding place. It remind me of the saying, "I like to inbibe abiding whilst riding lightning..." (In case you're wondering, I just made that up. "Phil, you creative genius you.")

I was praying yesterday that God would do this and that (as well as make me really really ridiculously wealthy and good looking) and then it hit me: this is a BIG God I am speaking to. My tiny pea brain can't even conceptualize him. I can't even rightly think of him. But I am heard by him. Amazing.

God will always be more. He will always be bigger. His salvation is always larger than I think. And as I find more and more sin in my life, I do begin to suspect something. I suspect that the Gospel is Big. It is. Someday we will all feast on it. We'll stuff our faces till we pass out. And, to the satisfaction of the mad scientists, our hearts may explode. For Jesus himself has "called us friends."

I blog news I barely understand. That's why it's called good. Sometimes it even makes me smile.