The wondering, and worrying, and working is officially over.
My friend Andrew was in severe kidney failure. He’s married and has 3 kids. He needed a kidney soon or he was going to die. Now, imagine if I went to the hospital, had them remove my kidney, and deliver it to Andrew and he says, ‘nah… I’m good. I don’t want your kidney. I can do it on my own’. I’d respond by saying something like, ‘I just took my kidney out, risked my life for you, I’m in excruciating pain, my body will never be the same, & you don’t want it? You’re making everything I just went through meaningless!’
That’d be ridiculous, right? No one in their right mind would do that. You’d accept the kidney you desperately need. In Galatians 2:21, Paul says we’re at risk of doing that same thing to Jesus. He says, ‘if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for nothing’. When we try to define ourselves by the good things we’ve done, we have looked at Jesus on the cross & said, Nah… I don’t need it. Literally imagine walking up to Jesus as He’s hanging on the cross, taking on all the punishment for all of your sins and telling Him, ‘You don’t really need to do this. I can be good enough on my own. I think God will let me in based on how good I’ve been’. This is what we’re doing by working for God’s approval. We’re communicating that Jesus died for nothing. If any of us could be good enough to earn God’s love, we’re saying that Jesus’ life, death, & resurrection were useless. It was all unnecessary. All He sacrificed was meaningless.
I don’t know about you, but I find myself drifting toward thinking God is impressed when I do something good or He’s disappointed when I do something bad. And this verse wakes me up to see how offensive that is towards Jesus. So, the wondering and worrying & working is officially over. God loves you & there’s nothing you can do to change that. Just… accept it and enjoy it!
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