When my older son was very small he loved collecting stamps. He, literally, spent hours sorting and resorting by changing categories. My wife’s father also had a significant collection, especially concentrating on the stamps of the Caribbean and Central America. One year for Christmas he gave them to my son. It was a huge box with thousands of stamps. My son never played with his stamps again. It was no longer the fruit of his efforts it was the fruit of his grandfather’s.
When we are small we often say to our parents, “Let me.” We want to do it. There is little joy in someone doing it for us. We love to master something and then say, “Daddy, watch me.” Perhaps this is part of the reason most religions of the world are focused on works. And Christianity, the only religion not relying on works, is often polluted by manmade rules of don’t eat this or drink that. We are instructed to make some manner of atonement to show our sorrow for our sins.
Paul addressed this to the church of Colossi. It was obvious someone was perverting the pure Gospel Paul had taught and so Paul wrote, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”
Contrary to our desire to do it ourselves, salvation is not a do it yourself project. It is the one thing, the most valuable thing, we cannot do ourselves. We must acknowledge our inability and let Jesus do it for us.
Spring Of Life