FIX-IT

I spent some time with a friend today who told me he had been making oodles of repairs to his home -- everything from fixing worn trim around the garage to putting on a new screen door to installing new light fixtures to touching up his walls with paint.

He's a master at fixing things.

I'm jealous.

Most of us think we can fix just about anything -- if not on our own, we 'have a guy' who can.  It's the way of American rugged individualism.  'I got this.'

'Just about the only thing we can't fix--

--is ourselves.'

I stand guilty before God and there isn't much I can do to clean myself up.

When you think about it, God could easily have taken a Giant Eraser and gotten rid of every single one of us for our disobedience toward Him -- accused, tried, convicted and sentenced.  But He didn't.  He graciously set in motion a plan which, at tremendous cost to Himself, made a way for us to be right with Him.

"At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  God demonstrates His own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  (Romans 5:6, 7)

It was the Great Substitute, whereby Jesus took our place on a cross to pay for sins we'd committed - both past and future.  It was one-sided.  We got it all; He got little in return.

He became sin, though He had not known sin personally.  He bore our sin in His body on the cross.

This should be a constant reminder that your best fix-it job is never good enough.  Jesus fixed it by paying it all for you.

And be blessed.