Paul
N. F. (9 May 2008)
"Our Heavenly Abode: Part of God's Goodness"
Our Heavenly Abode: Part of God's
Goodness
By A. W. Tozer
. . . We have a building of God, an
house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. 2 Corinthians 5:1
The true Christian may safely look forward to a future state
that is as happy as perfect love wills it to be!
No one who has
felt the weight of his own sin or heard
from Calvary the Saviour's mournful
cry, "My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?" can ever allow his
soul to rest on the feeble hope popular religion affords.
He
will -- indeed, he must -- insist upon forgiveness
and cleansing and the
protection the vicarious death of
Christ provides.
"God has made
him who knew no sin to be sin for us,
that we might be made the
righteousness of God in
him." So wrote Paul, and Luther's great outburst of
faith shows what this can mean in a human soul:
"0 Lord," cried Luther,
"Thou art my righteousness,
I am Thy sin!"
Any valid hope of a
state of righteousness beyond the
incident of death must lie in the goodness
of God and
the work of atonement accomplished for us by Jesus
Christ on
the cross. The deep, deep love of God is the
fountain out of which flows
our future beatitude, and
the grace of God in Christ is the channel by which
it
reaches us!
Even justice is on our side, for it is written., "If
we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins, and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"
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Yours
in Christ,
Paul N. F.