”Just As I Am Without One Plea!” Udskriv
Skrevet af Alan Navaratnam   
Fredag, 13. august 2021 19:50

God is faithfully bringing home to me two things, namely 1) The absolute futility of man to earn any approval by God through good works, and 2) God´s grace to do for us and in us what we can´t do by our own efforts.

Romans sets forth that our “flesh”, our inborn depravity, rebels against God.  It says, “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God´s law, indeed it cannot.  Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:7-8) It´s  pleased with rebellion only.

However, Romans also teaches us that what we can´t do, even with the  therapeutic “support”  of the law, God did for us in Christ on the cross. There “He condemned sin in the flesh”  (8:3), so once the sinner or the saint turns helplessly to God, His  power of grace is there.

 “Stretch out your hand” (Mk. 3:5), the Lord said to the man with a withered hand but that was exactly what he couldn´t do. But the power of His grace made the impossible possible.  The weakened man was not taken to the law of Sinai but he stood before Him, who is above the law. To that stern law the flesh was too weak.

When we preach :  ”Repent and believe the gospel”  (Mk. 1:15), we ask our people to do, what they naturally can´t do.  But our Savior gives grace enough to do what human logic finds impossible.  Biblical repentance isn´t something we can produce, it must and will be given to lost souls (Ap.G. 5:31) who come “just as I am without one plea.”

So it´s biblical to sing  “Come as you are to your Savior”, o how I love that come-as-you-are-gospel. May its grace be revealed to us afresh!

Dec. 5, 2020 - jn