Understanding Salvation/Justification

[odangdude]

I want to share this to offer my perspective. I attended the ICOC in 2010 and became an atheist in 2012. 7 years later, after almost getting a DUI and reassessing how I was living my life, I was reading the bible to try and learn about love. Not even to seek God. One thing that kept standing out was the phrase "you are saved by grace through faith"

It's a long story on how God taught me this, and ill share it if people want to read it. But what I realized was I was trying to maintain my own salvation through repentance. In Galatians 5 Paul talks about how if you get circumcised to be saved, you are alienated from Christ, because you are now relying on your works rather than on His finished work.

God helped me understand that justification is by Jesus' death, which is based on a promise made to Abraham. So me trying to overcome my sin with the purpose of ensuring my salvation, was trusting in myself rather than His blood.

I used to evangelize with a selfish motive. It was basically out of obligation, to avoid punishment myself, to justify myself before God to prove I was living a worthy life; rather than out of compassion for other people.

Imagine if you had a kid that was addicted to drugs, and he tried to overcome his addiction in order to be accepted by you, rather than for his own sake. Overcoming sin to earn God's love comes from a place of shame, and this is what I was doing. When I realized I was already accepted by Him, that He gave up everything for me, I felt my worth for the first time, and overcoming sin became about ME. I want to repent of sin because I care about myself, because I know I am a child of God. It's not selfish to care about yourself.

Jesus' command is to love one another, to have true connection with others. My sin hurts me because it prevents me from having connection with others. Overcoming sin brings me closer to people, which is what brings me closer to God. this is what 1 John says, if we love one another God's love will be made complete in us.

It's been a challenge to learn how to love and overcome fears and walls in my heart. Im learning about codependency and insecure attachment. Ways that I try to "control" situations to avoid vulnerability. But this process is not driven by fear of hell, but rather by assurance of God's love for me. God leads us, He does not pressure.

[SolaDude]

Thanks for sharing that, odangdude.....

[seekingthetruth]

I would love to hear more.