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Your Debt is Fully Paid {No Matter What Monday}

June 12, 2017 by Marissa Leave a Comment

It’s happened to me twice now, and each time was surprising and impactful.

I’ve pulled up to the Starbucks window and found out that my (grande, non-fat, one-pump-caramel) latte was paid for by the driver in front of me. It feels strange to receive my drink without giving anything to the cashier. I accept the gift of a free latte because someone I don’t know paid the debt I owed.

It’s a beautiful picture of the Gospel. Romans 8:1 tells us, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Condemnation is not a word we like to discuss. But God’s Word is clear that we are all sinners, and our sin deserves God’s punishment.

So how can Romans 8:1 say there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? Has God decided to look the other way? Did He change His mind about sin? Is He just being nice?

There is now no condemnation because Someone else paid for our sin.

On the cross, Jesus took the punishment our sin deserved. God is fully satisfied with Jesus’s sacrifice and will not demand payment from those who are in Christ. Our debt has been paid. We freely receive the gift of God’s grace.

As we drink deeply of His grace, we are set free from trying to convince God and others that we’re good enough. We don’t have to keep looking around, hoping to be a little better than the next guy. We don’t have to keep striving, hoping the good works will outnumber the bad.

When Jesus took your punishment, He gave you His perfect, sinless record. If you are in Christ, when God looks at your life, He sees what Christ has done. You can walk in the joy and freedom of God’s grace.

No matter what you face this week, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

You Have Been Rescued {No Matter What Monday}

April 10, 2017 by Marissa Leave a Comment

At my son’s 4-year-old checkup, the pediatrician asked if he had any chores. He replied that he didn’t have any chores, but he had a job and a problem. That got the attention of all of us in the room! He explained that his job was to keep his baby sister awake in the car. (Yep!) His problem was that his grandpa had offered him some pickled beets, and they smelled sour.

In the mind of a 4-year-old boy, stinky vegetables are a serious problem.

We often think our greatest problems are the circumstances we can’t control, the behavior of those around us, our inability to reach our goals, or this fallen world we live in. But God’s Word tells us our most serious problem is our sin. This problem is universal (Romans 3:23), and it ranks at the top of the Problem List because our sin separates us from our holy God.

If your greatest problem is your troubled childhood, your boss, or your spouse, then your ultimate solution is a therapist, a polished resume, or a campaign to change your spouse’s habits.

If your greatest problem is your sin, you need a Savior.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)

Your sin was nailed to the cross with Jesus. He was sinless, but He took the punishment your sin deserved. He dressed you in His sinlessness—His righteousness. When you stand before a holy God, you stand dressed in the perfect record of Christ. By His wounds, you have been healed of your greatest problem—you have been set free from the curse of your own sin.

No matter what you face this week, you have been rescued from your greatest problem by Christ’s death on the cross.

The Jerk in the Starbucks Parking Lot

February 24, 2016 by Marissa Leave a Comment

As I drove into the Starbucks parking lot, I saw a large gray Buick pull into a place reserved for those with disabilities. The lot wasn’t full, so I left an empty space on the driver’s side of the Buick and pulled in two spots over.

I looked over, expecting to see an elderly woman driving the car. But instead, I saw a younger man with long hair and a hoodie. If I encountered him in a dark parking garage, let’s just say I’d be mentally reviewing my knowledge of self-defense.

“Some jerk is driving his grandma’s car and taking advantage of her disabled license plate,” I thought to myself.

I can’t stand it when people park in those spots and don’t need them. I’m far from perfect, but that’s something I’ve never been tempted to do. And in that moment, looking at the young man committing a grievous offense, I judged him harshly. I looked down on him from my tower of parking perfection.

I love rules. To be more precise, I love the rules I can follow. Don’t commit adultery. Check. Attend worship regularly. Double check. Don’t take God’s name in vain. Got it covered.

But when I start thinking about scriptures exhorting me to love my enemies, I start squirming. I can’t even patiently and sacrificially love the people who mean the most to me. Be content with what I have? Consider others more significant than myself? Wait, there’s got to be a loophole in here somewhere.

That’s how it is with judging others, isn’t it? I’m quick to judge those who sin in ways I don’t. And I’m quick to ignore sin in others that I’d rather not face in myself.

When I’m secretly shaking my finger at others, I’ve forgotten I’m dependent on God’s grace to cover all my sin. I’ve forgotten that I’m not accepted because I can keep any of the rules. I’m accepted because Christ kept God’s law perfectly and died to save my rule-breaking soul. As a sinner saved by grace, I am called to extend grace to others.

Back in that Starbucks parking lot, I gathered my things and started to get out of the car. I watched as the young man in the Buick emerged from his car with a significant limp. He hurried to the door and opened it for a woman as she approached the coffee shop.

The only jerk in the parking lot that morning was me.

Cookies, Counting and the Cross

April 20, 2015 by Marissa Leave a Comment

Do you know the difference between a two-year-old and a three-year-old? A two-year-old will share her cookie with you. A three-year-old won’t.

Sometime around our third birthday, we learn that the quantity of the cookie is limited. We realize that giving part of our cookie to mommy means less cookie for us. And we’ve known for some time that less cookie for us is a very bad thing.

I think this understanding of limited quantities of desirable things can hinder us from understanding God’s grace and forgiveness. It’s hard to wrap our brains around a fountain of grace that never runs out . . . that never lessens later no matter how much I need now . . . that never lessens for me no matter how much you need.

I love these thoughts from The Valley of Vision, “Calvary’s Anthem”:

“At the cross there is free forgiveness

for poor and meet ones,

and ample blessings that last for ever;

The blood of the Lamb is like a great river of infinite grace

with never any diminishing of its fullness as thirsty ones without

number drink of it.”

Can you imagine a river of infinite grace that never diminishes in fullness? We can never exhaust God’s grace and forgiveness. Christ accomplished this for us!

When my troubles exhaust my emotional resources and when my sin exhausts my spiritual resources, this truth brings great comfort – the resources of grace and forgiveness that I own in Christ will never run out.

My daughter likes to beat me in the “I Love You” game by saying she loves me to infinity. The other day, she confessed that she can’t count to infinity because she doesn’t know all the numbers. I told her that even if she did know a lot more numbers, she could never count to infinity.

Infinity means there is always one more number. And the reason there is always one more number is because we live in a world created by an infinite God. We can never get to the end of His numbers, and we can never get to the end of His grace.

“O Lord, for ever will thy free forgiveness live

that was gained on the mount of blood;

In the midst of a world of pain

it is a subject for praise in every place, a song on earth, an anthem in

heaven, its love and virtue knowing no end.”

– The Valley of Vision, “Calvary’s Anthem”

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