The Thin Line

Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh.  Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

2 Corinthinas 5: 16-17 NKJV 

It is often our goal to be a beacon of Christ Jesus to those around us.  In fact, Jesus was quick to point  out that those around us would know us by our love for others {John 13:35}.  However, we often stop short in exhibiting the very love and compassion of Christ Jesus when we are confronted by those who would bring out in us the anger and resentment which was our former self in which we once walked.  We lash out, we proclaim others to be much more unworthy than ourselves.  In moments such a these, we all too often forget that we ourselves once walked as they did.  Our own arrogance therefore proclaims we ourselves as righteous while proclaiming those who offend us as guilty!  I can only imagine the ranks of the unsaved if only our loving and merciful God would have used that very same judgement on ourselves which we at times place on those around us.  For who then would be worthy enough to be saved?  I believe that the ranks of hell would then be filled with plenty of people who we ourselves have seen as righteous.  In fact, we ourselves may well be among them.  All but for the grace of our loving God.  God, who knowing our imperfections even before we were born, chose to pour His love and forgivness upon us through the selfless sacrafice of Christ Jesus.  Anot only ourselves, but on those who we might see as not worthy of Gods love.  

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power air, the spirit who  now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.  But God, whonis rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2: 1-6 NKJV 

Are we so arrogant that we would consider ourselves that much different from those around us?  For the apostle Paul himself proclaimed in Ephesians 2 that we who are in Christ are indeed dead in our trespasses and sins, in which WE ONCE WALKED.  The only difference between ourselves and that person out there whose conduct has in some way offended us is our realization that it is the love of God which has made us a new creation in Christ Jesus.  That's it, other than that we are as they are!  Think back to just how you conducted yourself before the truth of God came into your heart.  How many others saw you and thought, "What a jerk!"  I am not self righteous enough to believe that the thin line which seperates myself and the unsaved around me has anything at all to do with anything I've achieved {Ephesians 2: 8-9}.  For it indeed through Gods loving grace alone in which the sins in which I also once walked have now been washed away.  This new creation in which I now walk is the perfect work of Christ Jesus who is in me {Galations 2:20}.  Of course, should that person who I find so sinful accept the very same love and forgivness which I've found, where then is the difference between us?  For then he goes from sinner to one with Christ as I am.  Of course, the question remains, who will be the one to exhibit the love of Christ Jesus to him?  For without one to introduce to him Christ Jesus, will he not continue to walk as I once did?

~Scott~