"Be patient with yourself. To be human is to be beautifully flawed and covered in grace." @MIHImage (http://www.madeinhisimage.org/)
I don't believe that God loves my flaws. I don't believe that He accepts me "just as I am." Because what I am--human, sinful and broken--is not worthy of a perfect and holy God. I believe sin angers God. It is an offense to His perfection. Which means that my sin angers God. My flaws are not acceptable, they are an abomination to His image.
I do not believe that my flaws are beautiful.
They are shameful. My imperfection is not pleasing to God... but His love was and is so great that, in spite of and because of my sins, He sent His only Son to die so that my sins might be obliterated. That His blood might wash me clean and make me white as snow: without sin, without flaw. In Christ, I am beautifully flawless. On my own, I am nothing but rags and ashes.
It is this truth that makes the Gospel so much more dear. Not that God accepts me because of me flaws, but that He accepts me in spite of them. That I was totally and completely undeserving, but His love was greater than my failure, and He made it so that I was acceptable to be adopted as His child. And not only that, but Christ's sacrifice is efficacious: continually giving me the grace to live in Him until the day of His return.
So, "be patient with yourself", you say? I'd rather recognize that I will never be able to justify myself, no matter how much time I'm given, and thank God for the patience He already has with me.
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