My daughter is about to turn one. My first-born. My baby girl. One. 365 days. 365 times that God’s green earth has turned on its axis with her breathing this beautiful B.C. air. 365 times that she’s opened her eyes to a fresh new morning, full of potential and promise, full of beauty and life. 365 times I’ve said good night with a kiss on the cheek, and about 363 where I’ve woken thinking “It can’t be morning yet”.
Let me tell you, 365 days never went so fast.
But you know what else 365 means? Far more diaper changes than that.
Rae hates getting changed. She’s a curious, adventurous soul, we can tell already. She wants to move; she dislikes restriction; she detests restraint. But she also knows when she’s dirty, and she doesn’t like that too much either.
She wants to be clean, but she hates the process. She would so much rather transition from dirty to clean instantaneously, without the need for changing. But diapers don’t work like that.
I’m so glad that Jesus does.
One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him. (Matthew 4:18-19)
"The beauty of the gospel is that Jesus cleans us before he expects us to change. It’s not behave and be saved, it’s simply believe and receive."
You know when a fisherman cleans a fish? After he’s already caught it. You think fishermen get very many fish coming up onto the deck pre-cleaned? No, they get them grimy, they get them dirty, they get them guts and eyes and all. They catch them first. And then they clean them.
The beauty of the gospel is that Jesus cleans us before he expects us to change. It’s not behave and be saved, it’s simply believe and receive. It’s not tit-for-tat. It’s not do this or do that. We have no currency in this exchange, because the message of Jesus Christ is not transactional, it’s relational. God’s grace was never based on you, it’s just been placed on you.
The cross is sufficient. The blood is enough. Jesus made a way. As we near Easter, I’m so thankful to be reminded of this:
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
I’m so thankful that the Bible is not simply good advice - it’s good news. Good advice tells you what you should do. Good news tells you what’s already been done for you. As this weekend approaches, I’d encourage you to invite someone you know to come and join us, so that they too can hear the good news.
Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. (1 Corinthians 15: 1-4)
DANIEL COMRIE
