Thoughts for another day

March 30, 2010

Today's verse: Eph. 1:12. so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. (NRSV – copyright acknowledged)
(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

Long before the world and all creation could be created, we were chosen and willed in Christ, in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things by the intent of His will. He knew sin would be rampant among men, the one creature, He had designed to perfection. In whom He delighted and expected unceasing praise from. He knew the devil could easily provide man an illusion whereby man wouldn’t be able to see His plan for eternal life but rather delight in short-term pleasures, which would hardly last a while that too, only on earth. This because God had given man free will, by which he could exercise his personal choices. And exercise man sure did; he ignored all the delicious trees in the Garden of Eden but looked at the one tree which God forbade him from!

The saga of sin began with Adam and has continued until now, only worsening with time; worsening, not with the addition of new types of sins but, in our outlook toward them. What I mean is, there’re many things today, which for us are not sin any more like lying, spreading rumors, robbing things particularly from offices, adultery, not having devotion to God, etc. And we don’t realise we’re sinning, blissfully aware of the harm we do to God. But God’s graciousness has provided a Savior for us who paid the price for our sin. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, died in our stead, for God had decreed that the day Adam sinned, he would surely die, not the physical death, but the death of the soul. And though Adam sinned, he didn’t die but is saved by Christ.

Therefore then, what remains for us to do as men saved by God? Today’s scripture has the answer. If we’ve understood what Christ’s death means to us; a death so devastating and terrible, as to plunge His body into tremors of pain and lay every kind of shame on Him, then we realise that we are for the praise of His glory at all time. If we’re able to understand eternal life and our loss through sin and also our gain through the death of Christ, then we’ll be able to grasp the pricelessness of Jesus’ sacrifice and the wonderful future we have with Him in eternity. And hence we must realise that in this life, we are needed to praise Him always, unceasingly and let Him know how much we value what He has done for us.