Throughout the scriptures, God shows us over and over again that you can go through the motions, and profess God in words even complemented by good deeds yet not be saved. The Pharisees, Judas – prime characters who we see continually in the accounts of Jesus’ life. It’s not without purpose.

Churches in America and beyond  are filled with people who profess to know God and be of Him yet their hearts are far from Him. What do we do? Well we typically don’t address it directly, but we must. Are we going to jeopardize the eternity of our neighbor in an effort not to offend? Culture confuses confrontation with condemnation. One is fueled by love, the other by wrath. God is the only One rightly capable of wrath. And that is why we must confront. 

If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to cleanse us our sins and purify us of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).That sounds more loving than just to our human minds, yet God’s love never exists without His just nature. The two don’t contradict; rather, they always work in tandem. 

You see, God is just to forgive us because His holy, beloved Son Jesus Christ bore our sins on Calvary and His perfect sacrifice pays the price for our transgressions. So when we stand before God, His Son, our Advocate, Jesus’ blood covers us IF we are His. But if we are not His, we have not given our life over to Him, we are seen as guilty before God and we must pay the price ourselves because we have not accepted Christ’s payment on our behalf. This is justice. And there is no grace apart from it. 

We cannot claim grace without claiming Christ. And we cannot claim Christ without claiming His Word and all that’s in it. He IS the Word after all (John 1). The Lord Jesus said, “This is how they will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). We cannot really love others from a pure heart without a love for God. And God tells us that if we love Him we will keep His commandments (John 14:15). He wasn’t just talking about the “do not murder,” “do not steal,” and “do not commit adultery.” He was also talking about the “keep the Sabbath day holy,” “honor your father and mother,” “do not take the Lord’s name in vain,” and “put no other gods before me.”

Our ticket into heaven is not to claim to be a Christian but to have our hearts and lives transformed from the inside out. God tells Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones when he is talking about His people that He will remove their hearts of stone and give them a heart of flesh. That is what happens when the gospel penetrates us. It does something. If it has no effect on the way we live then surely it hasn’t penetrated.

We aren’t going to be perfect by any means! But we absolutely will be sanctified. And we will want to keep the Lord’s commands and live according to His Word, BECAUSE WE LOVE HIM and we understand what He has done for us out of His unsearchable love for us. We will grow in our desire to walk by the Spirit and our desire to live in the flesh decreases. There will always be a fight between the two, but that is the beauty in between – the sanctification between justification and glorification. 

If we are truly God’s beloved children, He has justified us, or made us right with Him, and one day we will be glorified with Him in heaven for eternity. But until then we will be sanctified, or made more like Him. And we know a lot about what that looks like from Jesus – the image of the invisible God. Yes, he sat down with sinners. But look at every single time He did – it wasn’t to okay their life of sin but to free them from it. He always gave grace, but look for one time He extended grace without the truth. You’ll never find it. The woman at the well, the tax collectors, the woman caught in adultery. True love is a combination of grace and truth. And we must know it, accept it, live it, and extend it to a world that desperately needs it. 

The Lord got a hold of my life years ago and has shown me the grief of my sin. I am far from perfect and I know plenty of people much closer to it than I am.  But I know I am made perfect in Christ. And I am assured of that because He’s replaced my heart for the things of this world with a heart for the things of Him. There is a lot of room for growth but I know that He is working in my life and giving me more and more understanding of the truth. He wants that for all of us, because in the truth alone we find life.

True life is found in Him and there we find joy and peace that transcends this world. The things of this world promise happiness that fades quicker than we expect and takes more than it gives, leaving us more empty than before. Lasting joy comes from the things of God. And every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variation or shifting shadow (James 1:17). He doesn’t change! In a world of constant rearranging, there is one constant. One Truth. One we can trust and believe with all we are – the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Our own truth will never satisfy because TRUTH is not relative. Only the Truth of God will meet our deepest longings.

If He is worthy of our full trust, He is worthy of following wholeheartedly and His Word of Truth is worth living. We live it when we love it. We love it when we really love Him.

If that’s not where you’re at, ask Him today to show you what you’re missing. And believe me, with all the grace and mercy you can bear, He will. That’s who He is. He doesn’t just want your behavior. He wants your heart.

In the valley of dry bones with Ezekiel, He didn’t stop with removing the heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh. He built the body up – He pieced together the dry bones, covered them with skin, and breathed life into them! The very breath of God breathes life into the dry bones. All scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16) – we have the very breath of God! We have His Word! And in the reading and studying of His Word, He breathes life into us.

It is also no coincidence that God takes Ezekiel into a valley to show Him the most incredible vision of life. That’s where God draws us to Himself and shows us who He really is – in the valley. There, at our lowest point, He speaks softly to our hearts because we finally have come to the end of ourselves and our eyes and ears are opened. And in the valley of death, we find life.

Abundant life begins with death. It may sound morbid but in contrast it is beautiful. We die to our selves, our futility and discontentment. And we live to Christ – to abundance, to joy, to peace, to fulfillment. It’s what we all want and are searching for. Usually in the wrong places. But God is faithful to bring us to the valley and exchange our death for life.

The picture above is of a valley in Israel. And just beyond the valley you see an expanse of water. Your walk through the valley can lead to living water as the Israelites so often encountered. But it was only when they gave up their way and chose God’s way that they got to experience the fulfilling life God had for them. God is the giver of life. We all have received the gift of earthly life, but have we truly accepted the gift of abundant life? We just have to allow Him to replace our heart of stone with a heart of flesh, and breathe life into us. The abundant life He gives is eternal.

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