Holiness Points

I mentioned yesterday that I came into my weekend with God with an agenda. One of the things I wanted to talk about with Him was my bad pattern of trying to rack up holiness points so I had something to point to in regards to my value and worth. I told God I did not want to be stuck in this anymore and asked what I needed to do to change this. 

He smiled and did that half-laugh thing. “I get to do things for you too. You aren’t the one who gets to change this. You do not need another thing you can point to and say ‘Look what I did. That deserves at least six holy points, right?’” This caught me off guard. I was not expecting that. I was expecting a five step action plan so I could resolve this. 

He reminded me of a couple verses in response to this: Zephaniah 3:15—"The LORD has taken away the judgments against you..." and Isaiah 40:1 (my paraphrase)— "Comfort, comfort my daughter. You are done paying for your sins. Your sin is forgiven."

Hillsong has this great line in their song Anchor—"you gave everything to gain the one you love". Woah. I had the song on repeat for a while but never paid that much attention to what I was singing. I am the one He loves. Jesus thought I was worth leaving heaven for. I was worth his living thirty-three years on Earth. I was worth it to endure betrayal and torture and murder. He wanted to take my place. He saw everything that would happen and still thought I was worth the exchange. I was worth ransoming. He came to trade places with me, not so I could be God, but so I could be with the Father.

So often I forget who the Father is. I come to Him with my list of sins and ask for a payment plan when Jesus already paid the bill. He's a Father not a bookie. I get to live in light of what's already been done for me. I can accept His love instead of trying to buy His love. Every sin was taken care of on the cross. Jesus paid the price for every single person's eternity. He could truly say "It is finished." That means nothing I do can trump the massive obedience of Christ. No sin out-weighs Jesus' redemption. I can stop trying to pay for it myself.