September #jammed: Free Grace.

Day 261: The Key to all hearts.

“Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge.” Luke 11:52

“I found the keys! I found the keys!!!” Pandemonium erupted at the top of my staircase as twenty half-grown feet pounded upwards in hot pursuit of the clue in hand.

“Look! Each one has our initial!” One shouted with glee!

“Quick!” Shouted another, “Everyone, find their key!!!”

The scavenger hunt clues led them all over the house and yard, and through all kinds of crazy antics and activities. Though it’s fun to try and stump my kids and their friends with riddles and mysterious directions, I’m forever relieved that my faith isn’t nearly as complicated. In fact, it’s not complicated at all. The Pharisees who tried to hold onto the complication of the Old Testament are put in their place in today’s verse.

” You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces.” Matthew 23:13

Jesus came to set everyone free of the law, and instead some were interpreting and adding all kinds of mysterious clues and required directions to follow in order to achieve salvation. It was infuriating then, and it’s infuriating now.

There’s no denying that some people comparatively seem to “do” more of the “right” thing. But Jesus didn’t come for what we can do. He didn’t come to exalt the “right.” He came so that not one sheep would be left behind. Not one child of God. Not one believer in Him. Not one. Yet there they were …excluding the very people who Jesus came to include.

The key to Christianity isn’t in key form at all. It’s not an act we perform or a set of skills we acquire. It’s not a batch of verses we have memorized or hours of service that earn us faith in Christ.

The key to life is Christ.

That’s it. But that seemed WAY to radical to be real back in Biblical times. It seems too radical to be real …now. When we aim to compare keys, we’ll find no two are the same. It’s not a matter of which one opens the door. Each key unlocks a relationship with Jesus that looks like none other.

Father, Praise You for the individual way You unlock our love of Christ. Thank You for accepting us through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Forgive us for misunderstanding Your grace, and confusing what it means to walk in a continual growth of holiness, and trying to “do” to earn what was already given to us. Bless our intentions and our lives. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Get the conversation started by commenting below, and let’s encourage one another as we face life in 2017 armed with grace! 

#greatgrace17

Happy Unlocking,

Megs

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