A Love More Vast

"It's easy to believe the gospel when you don't think you really need it."

It's easy for doctors to cure healthy people.

But it's rather ludicrous for healthy people to see a doctor, isn't it? We all know that there are enough sick people around to keep the doctors busy; there is no need for the healthy to visit a hospital.

But then again, what if you never visited a hospital? What if you never got check-ups? You can believe you're healthy all you want, but when cancerous cells are spreading throughout your body you'll realize at some point that you are not healthy, and have not been for some time.

Everyone - whether you're a health nut or your average couch potato - believes there are certain things you can do to keep yourself healthy. But what if you don't succeed? What if all your efforts to maintain a healthy body come to nothing as you develop a rare and deadly disease?

"It's easy to believe the gospel when you don't think you really need it."

Through my upbringing under the gospel, I have always heard the term "Easy-believism", or "Jesus and". It's easy to reconcile the fact that Jesus paid for our sins as long as there's something else helping out too. Jesus can't really be that powerful or loving or sacrificial or merciful.

Of course, we wouldn't dare say that last sentence out loud - but I'm pretty sure most Christians have believed that at one time or another. We like to add things to Jesus' work. His finished work.

One of my "easy-believisms" is what I like to call, "Jesus and my superior mask of good works and sweet words that elevates me above most if not all of my peers."

I am just like the pharisee: "God, I thank you that I am not like other men..." (Luke 18:11)

But what if all my efforts are in vain? What if my sin gets too big for me to hide? What if it controls and envelops me until I feel like a miserable, disgusting, mess? Where do I turn to for my security and stability?

Over the past 6-7 months or so God has been exposing me in many areas of my life. I have committed sins that I thought were "beneath me". Wrong. Nothing is beneath me, because I am a sinner. The heart is deceitful above all things, who can know it?

"It's easy to believe the gospel when you don't think you really need it."

After you sin, Christian, really sin - you'll realize how hard it is to believe the gospel. How could God ever forgive you, if you can't even forgive yourself?

I'm not boasting in my horrible sinful nature nor glorifying it - I simply want to express that it can be a means for God reveal to us the depth of the gospel. It takes time, but God is a patient teacher. He loves us enough to allow us to learn from our mistakes.

After you're exposed - and you come to the terms that no one could or should ever really love you except God Himself - then you'll see the vast, unconditional, constant and consistent love He has for you. He remembers our sins no more - even when we do!

Praise God that no matter how much we forsake Him, no matter how much we grieve Him, no matter how guilty and shameful we feel, He still LOVES us! His love for us is more vast than we could ever imagine.