Bridging the Vast Gulf

July 12

"It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all." I Timothy 1:15

GOD'S GRACIOUS HANDS

When we understand the character of God, when we grasp something of His holiness, then we begin to understand the radical character of our sin and hopelessness.

Helpless sinners can survive only by grace. Our strength is futile in itself; we are spiritually impotent without the assistance of a merciful God. We may dislike giving our attention to God's wrath and justice, but until we incline ourselves to these aspects of God's nature, we will never appreciate what has been wrought for us by grace.

Even [Jonathan] Edwards's sermon on sinners in God's hands was not designed to stress the flames of hell. The resounding accent falls not on the fiery pit but on the hands of the God who holds us and rescues us from it.

The hands of God are gracious hands. They alone have the power to rescue us from certain destruction.― R.C. Sproul, from The Holiness of God



The Apostle Paul, who laid aside all his worldly accomplishments, who put from him the accolades of men, and who ultimately sacrificed himself at the hands of the Romans for the sake of “knowing Christ and Him crucified,” I Corinthians 2:2, counted himself as nothing more or less than the chiefest among sinners, I Timothy 1:15.

While he was “yet dead in trespasses and sins,” Ephesians 2:1, he, as all others lost in the quagmire of the world’s illusionary treasures and accomplishments, clutched at the esteem he had earned by his meritorious and his excellent efforts; but once he met Christ on the road to Damascus, he knew that nothing he esteemed compared in value to owning Jesus as Savior and Lord ( see Acts 26:12-18).

We, too, must recognize the vast gulf between fallen man and our Holy God. We, like Paul, must grasp the reality of our sinfulness and our total inability to achieve righteous standing in His eyes apart from His placing His robe of righteousness upon us, Isaiah 61:10. When we do, we will stand in awe of the love and power that transformed us from sinners to beloved, adopted children of the Living God, Romans 8:15.