Part of Tenth Avenue North's Latest Blog...

Here is just a little excerpt from Tenth Avenue North's latest blog. I just love reading it because it is so uplifting. The new perspective, but also the challenge it brings... just thought I would share...

"I perform, and therefore I am accepted.
And that's the way it is.
Or is it?

I wonder if we've realized just how radical the gospel of Jesus really is?
Do we realize that its completely counter intuitive to everything we've ever
learned and everything we've ever experienced?
As Bono once put it, "grace...breaks the spell of karma."
And that's because the gospel works on a different system altogether.
While everyone else on earth proclaims, "you do good and I'll bring you close,"
Christ proclaims, "I was good enough for you to come close."
Tim Keller explains that while religion says,
"I obey therefore I am accepted by God,
the gospel says, " I am already accepted by God because of what Jesus Christ
has done for me, therefore I obey."

He died for us. He performed for us.
We are not accepted because we won eight gold medals.
We're not accepted because we kicked the game winning goal.
We are accepted because He was perfect for us. He earned it. He deserved it.
We are winners now, even though we never won for ourselves.

And that's stinging isn't it?
The gospel hurts our ego terribly I think, because deep down,
I think we all want to earn it.
We want to say, "I did it! Look at how great I did! Look at how awesome I am!"
But the gospel says, "Look at Him! Look at what he did! Look at how awesome He is!"
It's a great relief and a terrible blow to know that you are excessively loved and celebrated,
and it has absolutely nothing to do with you!
In fact, it never will have anything to do with you,
because this whole thing is about Him.

And that's where the title Over and Underneath comes from for our record.
The gospel is exceedingly clear that even at the very heights of our human achievement
and purity, Christ has gone higher. And that's pretty humbling isn't it?
He is over and above the most pure and the most successful, and there isn't
one person on earth who doesn't need Him or owe Him everything.
He has out performed us all!
And at the same time, at the very depths of human wretchedness and insignificance,
Christ has gone lower, bearing our sins, taking our shame, suffering the worst and
most embarrassing loss of all time. The loss of his right standing before his Father.
and the loss of his divine purity by clothing himself in our defeat on the cross.
There is no depth that is too low for his grace.
There is no failure that has fallen to far.
He is underneath us all.

And this friends, should do something profound in you and in me.
When we see that He is better than we could ever be, it cultivates
a deep humility in us, because who are we to look down on anyone?
Don't we need Jesus just as much as the next person?
And at the same time, as we view to what great lengths he went to to forgive us,
hanging on the cross for the very ones who nailed him to it, that should
sober us greatly when we think we are beyond forgiveness.
Is there really anything to dark that his blood cannot clean?
And that should give us great security.

He won what we couldn't win.
He lost what we couldn't afford to lose.
We are loved, and it has nothing to do with us.
And when we get that, that's when the greatest thing of all happens.
When we no longer are taking inventory of ourselves all the time,
feeling good when we do well, and feeling worthless when we fail.
When we no longer swing like a pendulum between pride and shame,
when we no longer think of ourselves higher than we ought or lower than we ought
that's when we can finally and with great relief, think of ourselves less.
When we are finally freed from our obsession with ourselves,
that we might be obsessed with Him, that is when we've
received the greatest gift the gospel can give.

"But we, with unveiled faces, beholding Christ's glory, are being transformed from one
degree of glory to another."
2 Corinthians 3:18"