That immediately causes concern, doesn't it ... to learn that 'Grace' has given her heart to 'an outsider'?
Well, it would in MANY a rural community.
But don't panic, this isn't a reference to a village running into melt down because the farmer's daughter has hooked up with a long haired, city-dwelling full-on vegan activist!
(Seriously, we love you all ...)
It's more about what's going on here:
"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."
Romans 5:6
UnGODly? Who are you calling UNGODLY?!
The ungodly is not a term of judgement, or criticism ... far less abuse.
It's Paul saying that there's a great big gulf - a rift in fact - between God and the god-less.
Well,of course there is ... to be godless is to be totally without God!
And the point is that God has done something dramatic to fix it.
He's acted at the RIGHT time ... not the right time and date but when the time was right.
How was the time right for this action?
We were still WITHOUT God and would stay there ... alienated from God by our sin.
Our sin couldn't exist in the presence of the Holy One.
We'd be obliterated along with our sin in the atmosphere of His full-on holiness, UNLESS first He fixed the sin that would cause this.
So Christ died for the ungodly.
His cloak of righteousness was thrown over His followers.
Our old boiler suit stained with sin was put onto Him
... and there on the Cross He took the heat, and served the sentence for sin that I had coming to me.
The point
It was while we were powerless to help our selves in our crisis, that Jesus Christ
- gave His life for the outsider
- the godless me
- when I couldn't help myself
- and didn't deserve His help
... but He poured out His perfect life to pay the price of my 'crimes', and so His spotless record could be passed onto me.
Generosity, inclusion and GRACE
THAT is generosity.
THAT is GENUINE inclusion.
That was sheer GRACE when He did that for me.
The takeaway
If you've turned from cuddling your sin to follow Christ then it's time to rejoice EVERY day ... even on cloudy grey Mondays.
If you're following Christ it's time to follow His example ... sacrificing yourself for the love of the outsider.
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