January 12, 2008
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God’s ‘buts’ in Scripture…
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved… Eph 2:1-5
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…Titus 3:3-5
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law…Rom 3:20-21
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom 5:20-21
(Bible Verses are taken from the English Standard Version)
Comments (4)
One of my mother’s favorite sayings is “But God…”
Left to ourselves we would be doomed….but God has opened the door for us. The door is Jesus.
Amen!
Jerry Bridges talks about how the beauty of a diamond is displayed against the backdrop of a piece of black, dark velvet to display it’s awesomeness. He remarks that our sin is the black velvet (we are much uglier, though, in our heart than the velvet) and the beauty of God’s grace when compared to our wickedness. Isn’t that an interesting picture (yet imperfect) of the Gospel?
I love your analogy of the black velvet and diamond. Wow.
I’m much better, thanks for your prayers and sweet comments. Love you.
Glad you are on the mend. There have been so many bugs around.
One correction, though! The black velvet and diamonds analogy was Jerry Bridges, not mine. I better go back and make sure I made that clear.
Love you!