This Is A Holy Place

Devotional

“The Gospel is bad news before it is good news” – Fredrick Buechner. It feels strange to go to church when I consider the ways in which I still sin. To go along and enjoy the communion of the saints, and have access to God – to be able to approach him as our Father…Is this hypocrisy? Or self-delusion? How keenly that feeling of unworthiness amplified when my wayward, fleeting, self-centred thoughts are confronted with the reality of Holy Communion – the reminder of what Christ has done for me. But a sign that God’s spirit is working in you is a growing awareness of the seriousness of your sins. You are no longer content to overlook them, or repaint them as acceptable. You long to be rid of them. And I said: “Woe is me!For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Isaiah 6:5 Many would prefer the church taught unconditional positive affirmation towards sinners. This is perhaps because they want to counter the devil’s tactics…He enjoys tormenting people with their own guilt. His purpose is to make us miserable, resentful and filled with self-pity. But He is equally content if we resolve to make light of our sins, and think of ourselves as better than we are. So long as we resort to pride or deception, we place ourselves firmly on his territory. I am a sinner yet How deep I’ve wounded, how shallow my regret And though I don’t deserve Your blood has cancelled out my debt But the gospel message is necessarily one which acknowledges both the fact that, on the one hand we are hopelessly dead in our sins, but on the other, Christ has paid the price, imputed His own righteousness to us, given us a new passport, a new inheritance, adoption, forgiveness, life, power to transform and an unshakeable hope. This truth destroys and rebuilds us – it empowers us to hate sin enough, and to cling to Christ enough that our lives begin to show evidence of sanctification. How do I reconcile the fact that the “sinful flesh” still dwells in me, and seeks to drag me back, and turn me away from following God? The fact is, I don’t reconcile it. Until Christ returns and finishes the good work He has begun in me, my job is to wage war. Sin is my enemy within, and my sins are horrible and shameful. But Christ is my saviour, and however great my sin is, Christ is greater still. He gives me recourse to repent and be forgiven. Let me avail myself of that great gift! Against the backdrop of my own unworthiness, the great worth of Christ becomes all the more precious. Let my sorrow be great now, that my joy may be greater.