TO GINO
Hello Gino!
I have only one word for your amazing post....BRAVO!!!
On some level we can all relate....you put your heart out there and touched everyone's life with what you conveyed!!!
Thank you!
For those who may have missed it, here it is again, below.
Bless you Gino!
You are a great example of an overcomer, one that knows that only Jesus can finish the race in victory, and that anything "GOOD"about us, is God.
YSIC
Patti C.
P.S. Thanks to Jim Bramlett for another one of his incredibly insightful and inspiring posts.
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Gino (2 July 2013)
"RE: Jim Bramlett: 07.01.13: Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees"
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Jim,
That was a poignant letter to say the least, but nicely done.
I spent about half my life in the Catholic church.
There I dutifully attempted to “earn” my way into heaven.
I was going the “way of Cain”, with a works based salvation in mind.
The day I was saved, I was wrestling with the LORD, in my car, over Ephesian 2:8&9.
I was in bumper-to-bumper, rush hour traffic, in-bound on the Kennedy, in Chicago.
I was terrified that if I trusted Jesus, by those two lines of scripture, that I would be damned.
That is because I looked at that as turning my back on the queen of heaven.
I did things for her, and prayed to her, daily, even with a rosary.
So trusting only Jesus, and believing that it was only by grace through faith, seemed to me apostatizing from her.
However, those two lines of scripture overwhelmed my heart.
I made a leap of faith, based on those two lines, that Jesus would save me, solely by his grace.
In my car, I turned from the queen of heaven, and turned to Jesus.
Then by believing those two lines of scripture, I trusted Jesus as my only means of salvation.
For me, works salvation was tied to my idolatry & my prideful way of Cain.
No matter how much works I did, they could never pay for even one sin.
I was 100% unworthy & 100% incapable of truly keeping the law.
That is why I needed his grace, and believed the gospel.
Now that I am saved, in and of myself, I’m still 100% unworthy & still 100% incapable of truly keeping the law.
I’m kept saved by the same gospel that I was saved by.
I knew that I needed the gospel to be saved.
So now, would I be so audacious, as a self-righteous Pharisee, to dare think that I don’t need the gospel now?
I have wondered & struggled with that before, and I make a very good Pharisee.
What height of arrogance did I come to have?
Thinking that my efforts were now as wondrous & powerful before the Father, as the blood of his Son?
It could only have been the blood of Jesus that could have possibly redeemed me, nothing could compare.
But now it’s, “Move over Jesus, my works are as good as your blood”?
Or, “In fact, I don’t need your blood anymore, my works can keep me saved as well as your blood”?
When I was lost, my damnation was never conditional upon my works.
I was born damned, because of Adam.
My own sins only proved to me that I had been a child of the devil my whole life, and that damnation was just.
I never “lost my salvation”, since I was born damned.
However, my standing changed by Jesus, by what he did, and by the power of his blood.
He translated me into his kingdom, and bought me with his precious blood.
There was no sin, work or lack of work, that his blood wasn’t able to take care of.
His blood is more powerful than anything that I could have done.
So now that I’m saved, how dare I think that my works, lack of works, or sin, is now greater & more powerful than his blood?
How could I think that I could now overcome even the blood of Jesus?
Why did I think that I could now “buy back” myself for the devil, by sin?
It was like I was thinking, “Father, I hereby buy my soul back from you, with something more powerful than your Son’s blood, my sin”?
Well, anyway, that was extreme blasphemy on my part.
I was sealed with the Holy Ghost, so if I thought that I lost my salvation, I thought that I would take the Holy Ghost to hell with me?
I also thought that I could “un-adopt” myself from the Father, and “re-adopt” myself to the devil, by the power of my own sin.
Why did I think that my sin was so powerful, more powerful than the blood of Jesus?
Why did I think that my sin could force open the hand of the Father, the hand of the Son, so that I could go back to the hand of the devil?
Why did I think that the eternal life that I now have:
I John 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
was not eternal life after all, but “temporary” life, until I sinned?
Why did I think that it was not really “salvation”,
but “probation”, contingent solely upon my actions, now, and lasting only until the moment that I sinned?
Why did I think that I could “prove” that Jesus was not all powerful, by simply “un-saving” myself, by a simple sin of mine?
Did I really think that he could save me (if I let him), but he was powerless to keep me, that keeping myself saved was solely up to me?
My actions now, were elevated to the level of divinity, whereby my works now could “undo” the works of the Son of God?
Again, I never lost my salvation in the first place, I was born damned.
Then, by nothing I could do, I was saved by grace, through faith in Jesus, based entirely on his merit, not mine.
I never lost anything by my actions.
But I did gain something, freely by grace, eternal life.
My eternal destination was never mine to lose, but his eternal gift was mine to gain.
The eternal life is Jesus’ life, not mine.
He is the way, the truth, and the life – he is the resurrection and the life.
His eternal life was never mine to lose or to earn, it’s his life, and he gave it to me freely.
His life, also is not contingent upon my actions now, either – who do I think I am, anyway?
It’s his life. He gives it freely. It can neither be earned or lost by our actions, because it is not our life, but his.
Gino