I get emails all the time from Allegiant and Spirit Airlines because I am on their email lists. Spirit frequently sends emails advertising up to “33% off, 50% off”, etc. Allegiant always sends out emails saying, “Fly as low as…” and this morning it was $29. I cannot find a $29 deal. I checked airports from Cincinnati, Las Vegas, and Hagarstown. I am certain that there is a flight from somewhere to somewhere for $29 or they would not be advertising that. However, I am not going to be taking that flight, whatever and wherever it is. It is not unlike a store in bankruptcy advertising discounts as high as 80% off. When you go in, what you are looking for is marked double the price of Walmart and then only marked 40% off, meaning it is cheaper at Walmart. These things are not false advertising. It is just that you are not likely to be the one who gets the $29 flight or the 80% off.
I pointed out that they are not advertising falsely because I am about to compare the Christian life and walk to the idea of “up to”. As someone who has been a follower of Jesus for 18 years, I remember when I went to the altar and was saved by the grace of God. I finally realized that Jesus had lived the life I needed to live, but that I could never live. I accepted that God was willing to give me credit for the life that Jesus lived, and gave me credit for the punishment that Jesus took for the actual life I lived. Basically, I get the credit for Jesus’ perfect life and He took the responsibility and paid the penalty for my sinful life.
Now, I have before me this goal of a perfect life, with His help, that I will spend the rest of my life striving to attain. A life of perfect love, of unfailingly forgiving others, a life of pure thoughts and sacrificial giving of myself and my possessions. I read about these things in God’s Word, and I know that I can have “up to” this perfect life. So can you. Ephesians 5:1 says, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children…” As followers of Jesus, we have a lofty goal. And it is not so we can achieve forgiveness, but because we have been forgiven. The beauty of our efforts to live like Jesus is that He constantly makes up the difference in every way we fall short, so in God’s eyes, we have achieved it.
It is ironic is it not? We strive to be like Jesus, yet we do so having already attained the victory through Jesus. What we must never do is to believe that our own goodness has made us victorious. We have victory through Jesus, who sets us free to fail as we attempt to live “up to” perfection.
*
*
*
*
Scott Knowlton's Blog 