"And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses" (Colossians 2:13).
The unique beauty of Christianity is that it is based on the supposition that we cannot be good enough to please God. We can try as hard as we want to do what is right, dedicating our lives to serving God and appeasing His wrath, but in the end we will all fall short. It is impossible for us to mend the terrible breach between us and God.
So then where is the beauty?
God knows better than anyone that we cannot save ourselves. So He sent Jesus to save us. Because Jesus lived a perfect life and died a sinless death on our behalf, God now allows His righteousness to cover all who believe that Jesus can save them. It is no longer about what we can do; it's about what Jesus has already done.
It is only after we are saved by the grace of God and the blood of Jesus that we can finally start doing what is right. Paul spends the latter half of Colossians explaining how Christians ought to live, but he presents this teaching only after a lengthy exposition on Christ's redemptive power. His point is clear: we do not do good to earn favor with God, but rather we already have favor with God, and so we do good so that we might reflect Him accurately.
All people labor under the knowledge that something is not right. We spend our lives searching for the missing piece that will finally make sense of everything. That missing piece is God. When we enter into a relationship with God through Jesus, we're finally who we were created to be. We can stop striving after the emptiness of the world and the cheap holiness purchased by our own efforts and instead delight in the glorious grace of our Father who loves us more than His own life.
Could anything be more beautiful?
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