All over the nation 18-year-olds hold their breath as they anxiously open mailboxes. Is there a skinny envelope or a fat one from the university of their choice? Skinny means you’re out. Don’t bother opening the envelope. Fat means you’re in and there are lots of forms enclosed for you to fill out. Getting in or not creates a lot of sleepless nights.
I know some people who toss and turn at night who are not 18. They are tossing as they fret about a more important destination. They are concerned that as hard as they try they just can’t feel like Jesus has saved them. They try to keep all the rules and laws they know of. Somehow that doesn’t take away their stress. Maybe they are missing one and will be lost because they only kept 631 out of 632. They heard a sermon last weekend telling them that isn’t the way. Jesus is the Way. That seems far too simple. Despite saying the words, “I am saved by grace” they just don’t feel safe. What if the preacher was wrong? They certainly don’t want to accompany him where he’s going if he misled all those people in church.
Hopefully, I have some good news for these folk. And yet why should they believe me if they aren’t overly sure of their pastor? So forget me and believe Paul. He can’t be wrong and even if they don’t feel saved, the truth is we are not saved by feeling, nor by intellect, nor by any other thing except what is expressed in the promise in Ephesians 2. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Best of all there aren’t any forms to fill out. The skinny envelope works.
Written by Roger Bothwell on April 7, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org