the logic of the gospel

The Word for today:
Romans 13

People can make too much ado about their spiritual journey. We can begin to romanticize the process of searching for God. We can start to turn the searcher, not the sought-after, into the star of our stories. Pretty soon, we start to describe ourselves with romantic words. Seekers become "sojourners" and sojourners become "wayfarers."

We can become so enamored with ourselves as seekers that we don't want to become finders! Because a finder can't be a self-described "sojourner" anymore. And a finder is responsible (uh-oh) to live up to what he's found.

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If the seeker can manage to get past self-stardom, he faces the next obstacle: stardust.

Along the way, we're fed the notion that God is somewhere over the rainbow--in the land of abracadabra and stardust, of miracle and mystery.

The Bible, however, is the most down-to-earth book there ever was. Its central message, in fact, is that we can't reach God, so God came down-to-earth to reach us.

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I point all of this out to arrive at one word: therefore.

'Therefore' is the hinge word in the book of Romans, connecting everything that has gone before it with all that will follow it. You will find it in Romans 12:1:
Therefore I urge you, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1)

'Therefore' is a logical word. Paul has laid out the case for the gospel in sane and rational terms that are accessible to every man. God hasn't asked us to understand mystery or miracle. He's only asked us to identify the problem (sin) and to admit (confess) that we are, personally, part of the problem. Then he points out the solution: salvation through the sacrifice and the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

The most intelligent, thoughtful and purposeful thing we can do with our lives, in view of all the preceding (Romans up to this point) is to give ourselves to God and to live for Him. Nothing else can fulfill us.

Therefore, give yourself to Him as a living sacrifice. It’s the only reasonable thing to do.

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