Becoming Who We Are Seen As Being

So I’ve been spending some time writing some songs that focus on Jesus coming and stepping into time with the cross in view and the other night this poem was on my mind and I wrote it down. It enabled me to write more than a song could contain about what it meant for Christ to come and take His people’s place so that they could know grace and be changed:

We are saved to be sanctified

We are saved to be changed

Made new, renewed

God’s glory shines forth from a life brought to life

He doesn’t love us as we are

Praise His Name for that!

For the “as we are” was deserving of death.

He loved us, though we were like that,

and sent His Son to take on the punishment we deserved

SO THAT we could be transformed into the likeness of His Son

Becoming what we are already seen as being

See, God the Father sees us through His Son

His Son’s work enabled us to come before the Father

Made right with Him

We are hidden under our Saviour’s righteous robes

When the Father sees us He sees the Son, His work

United in Christ

Our Saviour is our Head and we the Body

Our Messiah the Vine and we the Branches

No longer to identify as sinners - we take the name of our representative: Christian

Connected to Him, things changed

Priorities, motivations, focus, desires

Change, transform, made new

The branches do not bear fruit different than the Vine

No oranges grow with apples

The Vine does not have “Sin is no big deal, let’s continue in it evermore” fruit

We bear fruit in keeping with our lives hidden with Him

Guided by the Spirit

Not perfect, no, but the process of glorification begins even now as we walk toward Heaven with Him

By grace

Now, what is grace exactly?

It’s the understanding that we have received salvation by the sole work of our Saviour

Though deserving of death and condemnation

Everyone deserved death - not wanting God to be God, desiring for us to stand above Him and be god instead, loving sin and pursuing worldly pleasures and pursuits with worldly motivations

Yet, for His own chosen people, Christ came

Stepped into time, He entered Earth

Walked to the cross with the plan of salvation known before time in His sights

Took the place of His own

Brought His substitutionary sacrifice before the Father

And rose.

Rose to declare “It is complete, it is effective, it is sufficient”

Yes, we see grace in this, for sure, but the definition of grace is also so much more.

It is not Jesus and. Not Jesus and your checklist of religious duties.

It is not “He’s bound to forgive” or “If I just do these things I’m blessed and can keep living the same.” It’s not “If I’m caught, then I’ll say something.” And it’s not “I have my group to keep me from doing the wrong things I actually love and desire.”

Don’t take grace for granted.

Grace came at the cost of Jesus’ blood. It was brought into a life because of the cross.

Sin was a big deal. A treasonous affront to God Most High.

He didn’t brush it under the rug.

We didn’t make mistakes. We knew God existed. And with His existence, we also knew what was the opposite of Him. We just suppressed the truth.

Grace pours over us because Christ faced our death.

Because Christ took our place.

And because His sacrifice was sufficient, we can know His promises are sure.

We are receivers of His work. We sit as ones who know that He, our Sovereign God, did it all. Not us - that is not grace if so. For our having to say yes, renders Christ’s work insufficient and we transform the statement to “It is not finished!”

No, it is not us standing over Him. It is not that His hands are tied by us not doing something, or that our prayers are what makes Him work. Oh, what a small g god that would be!

He saved and we are transformed.

Transformed by the joy of knowing how big He is.

Delighted by the understanding of how minutely small we are.

This changes a life! This alters focus and vision!

This creates a way of daily worship.

We are receivers and we respond in worshipful delight that He desires our joy.

We behold this truth and are changed by this beholding.

Grace is poured out on us daily! Grace upon grace! Not just a once in a moment thing. For a Christian, no way!

Grace is found in conviction. That underlying sense of not wanting to do something and that leads to repentance.

Grace. The grace of conviction that stops you in your tracks in the small things so that the thresholds of the big things don’t get crossed.

The grace of conviction and sanctification mixed in one when you realize that the thing we are convicted of will be changed, the dross removed, because the One whose will will be done, whose words do not leave His mouth and return incomplete, the One who went to the cross and “It is finished!” is working in your life.

Grace is that we will be changed. We will become what we are already seen as being. A child of God seen through the Son of God. Sons and daughters of God are only able to be seen through the true Son of God who has covered us with His work.

This is grace. Now we can know joy. And true unwavering joy is only found in seeing that He is our greatest Joy and what He desires for His people brings us greatest delight.

Previous desires transformed. Our old selves died. Our new selves were raised up. Hearts saddened by wrongdoing. Hearts delight in conviction. Mind judging between what is of Him and not based on objective truth - and not our own - for our joy. A joy found bound in relationship with Him.

What He says is not burdensome, not duty, but delight for it brings us greatest joy. And the One who fulfilled all that was needed left the Spirit within us that we might be able to live in a transformed way, by His power. The Spirit opening our eyes to comprehend the mysteries of His word and the man-repulsive but magnificent understanding that He is sovereign.

Consider this! The world will find it hard to do the things He points toward.

But what does He say to do? Worship Him! Point to His glory because there is no one that stands above Him and no one that takes Him by surprise which, therefore, declares that He is God! Consider the great joy that He desires for His children! Hope in the One whose promises are sure while in a world where the people are fickle!

We were saved to be changed. To be transformed into the likeness of the Son. To bear fruit that was already planned.

This does not mean ritualistic checklists

Or attending things or giving things so that you are covered blessings-wise

Not human-focused, human-led, humans above God, humans get the glory for their human praising works.

Grace is that Christ died for His people who were not only undeserving, but deserved the opposite. Not like an unexpected treat for a child that doesn’t anticipate it. We were rightly condemned for a criminal offence that we did do.

And grace is that we are transformed and changed daily to live differently as the new lives we are seen as being - through Christ.

This is grace.

By grace we are saved and by grace we are renewed.

As certain as His promises are true.

All glory be to God.