The best thing in life is free.

I have this idea in my head that people perceive me as "deep" or "wise". I'm not trying to toot my own horn, this is just a perception I pick up from people here and there. In truth, I'm not all that deep, nor am I wise. 

Well, maybe I have wisdom, but not because I know a lot of serious things or perspectives, but because I fear God (most of the time). I say most of the time, because as we all know, I like to do things on my own or think I have some semblance of control over my situation. Those are my dumbest, and obviously least wise moments. 

I feel compelled to write deep things mostly because God tells me these stunning truths through experiences that words could not possibly explain or convey to the full extent. But truth doesn't have to be complicated, and I find that the simplest truths often have the greatest impact. 

Today's one of those simple truth days. 

This is what 5:15AM looks like. 

For the first time in my life on a Thursday night/morning, I had woken up and just could not be bothered to try to fall back asleep. I describe it as being too lazy to want to fall back asleep. And there's also the factor that once I'm up, I'm up. There's a point of no return, and once I reach that point where I'm more conscious than groggy, it's over. 

The time was 4:13AM. How grand. 


I'm in the nature of thinking that every time I go to bed late (1AM-3AM), and miraculously awaken at an early time (8AM), it's God tapping me on the shoulder to set up a morning meet up. And when I consider that, it makes being up earlier much more worthwhile. This helped me enjoy being up at 4AM. I felt rather privileged. 

I grabbed my Bible, and turned to Romans 6. 

"22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:22-23)

Romans 5+ covers every major truth God has been teaching me as of late. But this morning, the coolest thing that I read was in Romans 6:23: God's free gift of eternal life - that eternal restoration.  

The best things in life are free McDonalds...
and the Spirit of Christ, of course, forget about
the peace, love and happiness thing. 

The Free gift. It's FREE. 

I'm a big fan of free things. But there is a point where you start to under appreciate things sometimes because you get a lot of freebies, and I feel like I've missed appreciating this free gift.  

Salvation is a free gift that God very much desires to bestow upon us. We have not earned a right to a relationship with God, and yet, He gives it freely through Jesus Christ. All we have to do is receive it - to want it, and to take it.

I don't know about you, but it blows my mind to think that the God of the universe would offer to you and I a chance to enter into relationship with Him, offered to us freely. No holding back, no limits. 

This free gift is also described as the "free gift of righteousness" - right standing-ness before God, which leads to eternal life, through Jesus (Romans 5:21) - eternal relationship. 

This I think helps to magnify the immensity of grace, the fact that we are made righteous by Jesus Christ alone. Righteousness is absolutely impossible and unattainable - you can never do enough "good" to please Him, and nothing you ever do will be good enough (Isaiah 64:6, Romans 8:8). And yet other religions will tell you to keep trying and trying to be good enough and do things for God. 

It's nonsense.

If one believes in an all-powerful, perfect deity, how can you ever hope to think that your measly imperfect, un-altruistic efforts and attempts at goodness, could ever make you "clean" enough to even enter into His presence? The truth is penetrating when it says: we cannot do good - we cannot please God in our flesh, apart from the Spirit.

This is why I marvel at the free gift of righteousness - the free gift of being able to have a relationship with God at all. I couldn't hope to be with God, if not for Jesus. It is in Jesus that we are able to reign in this life - to reign over the flesh (Romans 5:17). It is by the Spirit of Christ that we may conquer the flesh and wage war against it (Romans 8:13). And all of it, Grace.

That's the stuff Joy is made of. Joy isn't something you pull out of your arse when you're at your wits end and you keep repeating "The joy of the Lord is my strength," over and over, without getting what it really means. 

No no, Joy is rooted in thankfulness. Joy stems from realizing the immensity of the grace you have been shown. Joy is yours when you see that God is so gracious, and He has given you unmerited righteousness on a silver platter. 

So when you look on the shamefulness of your sin, and come to repentance, you won't just stop there. You'll praise God, and find JOY because you are grateful for what He has done. In your painful trials and tribulations, you'll find Joy is not circumstantial or dependent on feelings, because it is rooted in your thankfulness for the grace upon grace that God shows you. 

Since I've been studying Romans, I think I'll write up the next entries on the topic of Chapters 5-8. Because the heaviness and amount of insane revelation and confirmation that has come from those is too much to put in this entry.

Stay tuned.