Kind of a Big Deal... No Boasting

Kind of a big deal? The realization of who God is and just who we really are in Christ should never be cause for boasting
 (Romans 3:21-27)  God has saved us apart from our works.. We are saved by grace through the work of another: Jesus Christ. We have no righteousness of our own... It is a righteousness outside of ourselves; an alien righteousness. We are NOT kind of a big deal! When we encounter the holiness of God, our reaction should be the same as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Peter, John and Paul. Their reaction was the result of the confrontation with God's holiness and their own sinfulness, and they were undone; shocked, scared... Some of them fell as though they were dead.  The only proper response to God's holiness and might is to get low.... Get VERY low before God. ... Get as low as you can as fast as you can. Our only hope in such great a presence is absolute brokenness and genuine humility... We are not great, but God is... We are not righteous, God is, and he has legally declared believers in Jesus righteous .. There is NOTHING for us to be boastful except this; the Cross of Christ. We enter into joyful boasting when we worship God in spirit and truth.. All other boasting is excluded.  The prophet Jeremiah says it quite well:  "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me....."  Jeremiah 9:23-24a ESV
We are NOT a big deal. But our glorious, majestic, holy, righteous, and merciful God is! 

To my preacher friends: A little humor

Sermon goggles! Why don't we buy these for our churches? Hand them out for those brave enough to sit up front.... Your congregation will love you for it!

Christ : Our Substitute

“The concept of substitution may be said, then, to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man’s substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices Himself for man and puts Himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which only belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.”  - John R. W. Stott, “The Cross of Christ”  (IVP Books, 1986)