With so much deception, misinformation, and wrong ideas, it is no wonder people are confused. The world teaches that merit is required to excel, and we often carry this mindset into our relationship with God. Yet this is the opposite of what He desires.
For those who want freedom, the call is to become a servant of God.
1 Corinthians 6:20 “For you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
What was that price?
Romans 8:32a “He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all…”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
Romans 5:8 “But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Freedom is never free. Someone must pay for it. God’s justice demands payment for sin, which is death, Romans 3:23. God’s love knows we cannot stop sinning, so He sent Jesus to pay that price for our freedom.
When we say, “I’m not good enough” or compare ourselves to others, we are really saying to God, “You’re not good enough. Your payment wasn’t enough to save me.” That is a lie. Religious voices may say you must obey to be saved, but scripture is clear:
Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”
What is faith? It is persuasion, a strong conviction in the truth. By relying on God’s word as your shield against lies and manipulation, you grow in faith, that is, being persuaded that His work is enough.
God says, “Surrender to my Son, and He will save you through His obedience.”
Hebrews 5:8 “Though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered.”
Philippians 2:12-13 “So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.”
The work is God’s, not ours. Paul explains this inner struggle in Romans 7, I do not do the things I want, and I do the very things I hate. He exclaims:
Romans 7:24-25 “What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, the law of sin.”
Every day we must remind ourselves, “The payment is enough. I am the righteousness of God in Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 “For him [Jesus] who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Accept the gift of no condemnation.
Hebrews 4:11, Romans 8:1