Grace Church

As a recent high school graduate, with plans to attend college at UNC Chapel Hill, I had some understanding that in a few months I would begin a new chapter of my life. But as I sat in the auditorium of the New Attitude 2006 conference, listening to C.J. Mahaney preach on Isaiah 53, I did not realize that God was radically changing my life’s course. His sermon impacted me like no other message I had heard up to that point. In tears, I turned to my dad beside me and said, “I never knew.” Of course, growing up in a Christian home, attending a Christian school, being active in a Biblical church, I did know—I had heard the gospel from a young age and had put my faith in Jesus Christ as a child. However, for the first time, the Holy Spirit was opening my eyes to behold Christ crucified: “wounded for [my] transgressions…crushed for [my] iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought [me] peace, and with his stripes [I am] healed” (Isaiah 53:5). God had used the Word to lead me to the foot of the cross and was showing me “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards [me] in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7) like never before.

Beneath the cross of Jesus Christ, I was exposed for who I truly was—a desperate sinner, utterly lost and hopeless without God, in need of forgiveness and a Savior. The words of Galatians 6:15 (“For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation”) were made real to me. Neither what the world (and I) deemed of worth in my life at that time (I was a good student, and my college and career choices were promising), nor what it (and I) thought I lacked (an academic scholarship, an attractive figure, a boyfriend) mattered in that moment—these things could not save me or give me hope! Finally, the amazing revelation of grace came! I had hope because of Jesus! I would never have to experience God’s wrath. And the love He has for His Son was now extended to me, His daughter, through faith in Jesus (Ephesians 2:8). All that counted was that I had been made into a “new creation” by the gift of God, not a result of my works (Ephesians 2:8, 9). How could I boast in anything but the power of the cross!

Since that time, God has used many things to “shake up” my life and test what I prioritize and value, what I am building my life upon, and what I am trusting in. I have found myself asking the questions, “What in my life counts for anything? What matters?” a lot over the past few weeks (especially during my time in Holland)! The struggle continues—I still am tempted to find my identity, and place my hope, in the knowledge of what I am going to do in the future, and in the way I perform in academics or in service to God. Day to day, I find that I boast in things other than the cross of Christ. Nevertheless, I, like Paul, want to put all of my hope and confidence in Jesus and renounce any other thing that I would seek to bring me glory or put my trust in (“the world,” Galatians 6:14).

I’ve been meditating on Ephesians 2 and have been struck by Paul’s encouragement to believers to “remember” what we were before God made us alive together with Christ, to remember that we were at one time separated from Christ (v 11, 12). We must position ourselves to gaze upon the cross of Christ each day (truly, every chance we get!), so that we do not forget who we were before God saved us. The cross exposes the world for what it really is (a false hope and security, under God’s wrath, sinking sand). Our response to such revelations should be one of humility: we boast solely in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, proclaiming that the work of Jesus is sufficient and the one glorious hope of our lives! My prayer is that God will give me (and you!) more grace to remember the one reality that defines who I am (and you are): “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). Now, we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2:10)!