you don't belong in Heaven

Oswald brings out a brilliant point when he states,

Forgiveness doesn’t merely mean that I am saved from hell and have been made ready for heaven (no one would accept forgiveness on that level). Forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a newly created relationship which identifies me with God in Christ. The miracle of redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One. He does this by putting into me a new nature, the nature of Jesus Christ.

I do not know the first thing about the ins-and-outs of running a business. If I was approached on the street and told that I have been selected to run General Electric, I would be floored. I have never applied for a job at GE, let alone, the position of CEO. I am not qualified to run GE. I would point this out feverishly. If their response was to say, “We looked over your resume' and know that you do not have the necessary education or skills to run GE, but we are willing to overlook that in order to give you this opportunity,” I would be SIMULTANEOUSLY very unimpressed with GE’s HR department and terrified. I do not belong in the position of CEO. I know nothing about it.  I do know enough though to do that I would fail at it. It is beyond me and my capacity. I can only fail. The very act of overlooking my inability is what guarantees I will fail. This act of grace becomes the seal on my death warrant. It is not good of GE to overlook my resume. Their grace becomes my doom. I am now subject to penalties and punishments greater than I was exposed before. I now have the power to ruin GE and myself in ways I did not have access to previously. I was in no danger of being imprisoned for tax evasion before; but now, by accident I could end up condemned.

If God simply states He is willing to overlook our spiritual resume in order to allow us into Heaven, we still have the problem that we don’t belong there. We are not qualified to be or live there. We don’t have the capacity.

We can only fail.

The grace in setting aside our sins sets us up to be slain.

We cannot be who we are not.

Just because we are sitting in the CEO’s seat, does not mean we are qualified to be sitting there.

BUT…

God does not set us up for even greater disaster in forgiving our sins.

He forgives us not by pretending we have not sinned, but by paying for them in full in Christ.

Even more so, He provides for us the qualifications earned and extended to us by Christ’s perfect life. He does not make us heirs without first making us a sons.

God would not be wise, just, or kind to overlook my deficit if He did not also make up the difference.

In Christ He perfectly accomplished BOTH.

Because of Christ, we belong.

We belong to God.

We belong with God.