Okay! I recently heard an analogy where The Gospel and Rocky Balboa were compared. You are probably wandering what the heck Rocky has to do with the Gospel, BUT the fact is- we are a lot more like Rocky than you would think. I think i should explain...
In all the Rocky movies, Rocky Balboa (the big-shot boxer) is constantly trying to prove himself, always trying to show others what a good boxer he is. Now THAT is where we are very similar to him. When we mess up, we automatically try and prove that we are better. We are always striving to show others that we are not that messed up and so we try make up for our actions. There is no freedom, we will always fail because the fact is: WE ARE ALL MESSED UP! If we are acting in hope to prove ourselves and prove our goodness, there is no end.
But the Gospel gives us a completely different reason to be good. Society and even Religion says that if we do good things, we will be accepted. But in Jesus, we are already accepted! He payed the price for us, and now who we are is not what we do BUT what HAS BEEN DONE FOR US! We are righteous because of what He has done and we act out of GRATITUDE!, not shame. No matter what we do or have done, God always loves us. There is nothing we can do to make Him love us less. He IS love. Everyone makes bad choices but its by the grace of Jesus that we are accepted and so the running is over.We don't have to prove anything because He has already done it. He who knew no sin came down so that we might know the righteous of God. It's so easy to catch 'The Rocky Syndrome' because society says it is normal. We cause ourselves pain and hurt just like Rocky did. The choices we make are not what make us who we, Jesus makes us who we are.
Great teaching from the band
Tenth Avenue North :
http://tenthavenuenorth.com/
It's so difficult to not want to prove yourself in modern society. People expect things, the media force upon us all these 'ideals' that we're supposed to live up to.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be great to not want to prove ourselves to others, but it can be difficult. Maybe it's better to concentrate on proving something to ourselves. Maybe that's what rocky was doing; maybe he had to prove to himself that he had the willpower to get up again?
Its understandable and that seems fine. But in Christ, our weakness is made perfect and so there is nothing to prove. He has already paid the price of our sin and so we dont have to make up for it, He did.
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