“He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for Himself a special people eager to do good works.” Titus 2:14
“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and converted us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:13-14
I’m not sure the true nature of salvation often really sinks in to those of us who have spent all of our life “in the church”. In saving you and me God didn’t take mostly good people with nice intentions and help us a little along our way. Nor did He take our works which had gotten us pretty far and span the rest of the way with the cross. God encountered lawless, evil to the core beings, bound by darkness and radically redeemed, cleansed, delivered and converted us.
In pondering this picture it reminds me strongly of what I see women in prostitution needing. These are words and phrases we pray for them… but how often do we believe they are truly possible? Perhaps if we better understood our own salvation we wouldn’t be so quick to doubt. As humans separated from God the gulf is no wider for one person than for another. It is no more challenging for God to save a prostitute than to save self-righteous sinner.
Even more encouraging is to see that this is God’s heart! Saving people from the black mire of sin and completely transforming them was first and only HIS plan - not ours. We don’t have to wrestle with Him to convince Him to engage in this project, He invented it! When I gaze at God through the scriptures I can’t help but think He delights in saving these women. So let’s be encouraged and not doubt either God’s willingness or His power.
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