I Love How Christ Looks In You: Galatians 2:21

Because we have been crucified in Christ and Christ now lives in us, we should be looking for opportunities to say, “I love how Christ looks in you.”  We serve one God; Jesus should unite us.  We have all fallen short of God’s glory; the grace of God should unite us.

If we assert anything besides Christ’s faithfulness as necessary for salvation, then Christ died for nothing.  Salvation is God’s work, not ours.  When it comes to salvation, we are the kid sitting beside the Christmas tree on Christmas morning receiving a gift we don’t deserve but we receive it anyway because our parent loves us.

Suppose for a minute it is possible to earn salvation.  What that does is turn Jesus into nothing more than a cheat code in a video game.  It turns Jesus into God’s way of letting slackers into heaven.  Instead of being the answer, Jesus becomes the answer for those people who can’t muster up enough character in themselves to do it right.

Hopefully the prior paragraph feels off.  It should.  I don’t picture God sitting in heaven looking around, seeing a meager few perfect people, and saying, “I wish heaven was more crowded, let’s make an easier way.”  I picture God in heaven looking down knowing that no one is righteous enough to sit in His presence yet desiring for everyone to have the opportunity to be there anyway.  I picture God in His immense love declaring a new way to become righteous.  I picture God wanting His whole creation to know His perfection so He sends Jesus to die for our sake so the gates of heaven are opened to all. 

Jesus should not be reduced to a cheat code for slackers.  He is not the backdoor to salvation; He’s the only door to salvation.  He is the way for people who cannot save themselves because we all fit that category!  We have all fallen short of the glory of God.  We have all measured poorly against the Law of God.  We are all in need of Jesus.

This is why I bristle when I hear Christians judge perceived differences in other Christians.  It’s one thing to look into the life of another and say, “I can see how that action helps them get closer to Christ but it’s not for me.”  That is honoring how God made you and how God made them.  It’s another thing entirely to look into the life of another and say, “Because they don’t do Christianity like I do, they aren’t really Christian.”  If Jesus knows us, we are Christian regardless of how Jesus looks in us.  Because we have been crucified in Christ and Christ now lives in us, we should be looking for opportunities to say to each other, “I love how Christ looks in you.”

[That last quote isn’t mine.  That’s a quote from a colleague of mine whom I love and know he doesn’t mind I stole it from him.]