We had some time in solitude yesterday at my internship, and were told to think about the question, “How has the gospel been good news to you recently?” As I wrote, I started using sentences connected by the word therefore. It is one of those words that you know, obviously, but we don’t really think about all that it means. Its definition is consequently or for that reason. It is kind of like an equation; this happened, therefore, this is true.
So how is the gospel good news? This is what I wrote:
I am unworthy of love, selfish and broken, yet You redeem me.
You choose to love me because I belong to You.
You made me, therefore I have worth.
You fashioned me, therefore I am capable of being unbroken (put back together).
You created me, therefore I have Your Image breathed into me.
You saved me, therefore I am worth saving.
You sacrificed (a lot) for me, therefore I am worth a lot to You.
You have given me life and the opportunity for life abundant – thereforefullness of life and JOY are possible and achievable, in You.
All of that is good news.
If therefore means “that being the case”, we can figure out so much about ourselves based on what comes before the therefore. What we know as fact, as objective truth, can logically be followed to what must be true. Jesus sacrificed His life for us, He bled and died and rose again for us – that is truth. We know that. And therefore, because that is true, it means that we are saved. It means we are worthy of His saving. It clearly shows that He actually does love us because why would He die for people He didn’t want to love or save?
What would happen if we lived in the resulting truth that comes after the therefore? If we truly believed in what came first, and lived out what consequently had to come after? I think we would start to see ourselves rightly. I think we would start to see God rightly. Maybe we wouldn’t doubt truths like His love or our salvation.
I want to understand the weight of this. I want to live after the therefore. I want the gospel to mean something deeper to me.
Not sure any of that will make sense to anyone else, but those are my thoughts and I’m sticking to them. (:
this life's blessings 