Observations from reflections

4.     What the gospel means:

 

4.1       The gospel means that I have nothing to prove. I am already accepted. I have nothing else to prove. My life is so full of competition and comparison. The need for success can be stifling. I have already been found out to be a fraud, a liar, sexually immoral, murderous, covetous, a blasphemer, an idolater and every other kind of sinner. And yet I have been forgiven. I now no longer need to establish and prove my worth to anyone.

 

4.2       The gospel means that I am a terrible person. The gospel accuses me of being a terrible person—and it is true. And yet the gospel says I am changed into something recognizable as perfect.

 

4.3       The gospel says that I am still a terrible person now that I have been saved. I am changing into higher degrees of glory; but I am still a terrible person in actuality. And yet the gospel says that I am construed as lovable. Even though I may continue to be actually bad, I also continue to be regarded as actually absolved of sin.

 

4.4       The gospel says that no one can accuse me of anything that should provoke me to being upset. I can be accused of my deepest fears and I cannot fall lower than my admission point where I came to Jesus and admitted that I was terrible. They can accuse me of being useless, talentless, of low capacity, or any other accusation of inadequacy; and these will not be any worse an accusation that I have already conceded to. The day I confessed to Jesus I bottomed out and no one can take me lower than that point. And then Jesus ascended me to the highest height after I conceded to the lowest low.

 

4.5       The gospel says that I am inferior to all other men in the universe, but God treats me as a peer and equal and friend.

 

4.6       The gospel says that I am a total failure, and that I should expect to continue to fail; but the gospel also says that only once I lay my failures aside as failures, can Jesus intervene and condemn the failure to transform it into success. The only way to succeed is to allow Jesus to produce it in me. The best way to produce success is to let Jesus curse the failure, that he might replace it with success.