The Reality of Redemption...

*Personal holiness is an effect of redemption,
not the cause of it.

*...And as long as our eyes are focused on our own personal holiness, we will never even get close to the full reality of redemption. Christian workers fail because they place their desire for their own holiness above their desire to know God.

~Oswald Chambers

How often do we as Christian believers get so caught up in the aspiration of our "personal holiness" that we fail to forget that our "holiness" is a result of redemption and redemption alone. It's nothing we do or don't do that makes us "holy", rather "holiness" is the fruit that stems from believing in Jesus Christ, the One who sacrificed His life in our stead.

How often do we think that if we do this or abstain from that, that we will be more holy?

redemption = God redeeming my sinful soul through the reality of the cross that Jesus Christ bore.

As I sat and reflected on The Reality of Redemption this morning, I found myself humbled, thankful, enlightened...humbled that God sent His one and only Son to earth because He loved me...thankful that Jesus willingly came from the majesty of Heaven to be born, to live, to die, to rise again so that I could spend eternity with Him...enlightened in the fact that "holiness" has nothing to do with what I can or can't do, what I will or won't do, but simply because God loved me enough and Jesus was more than willing.

As I live my life in obedience to the Holy Spirit, the redemption that I have so richly received through Jesus, will bring glory, honor and power to my Heavenly Father, for the glory, honor and power belong to Him and Him alone!

Today I am thankful that my sinful soul has been redeemed and because of it,
I am holy!