Pastor’s Corner is a weekly column from Pastor Wynter Sturtevant III of the Mariposa Reformed Baptist Church. The church is located in Mariposa, California at 4994 11th Street in the Seventh-day Adventist church building. Services are held at 10:00 A.M. on Sunday.
February 14, 2019 - We can be very skilled at building ladders meant to distinguish ourselves from those below. People try to gain higher ground and point out just how bad the people beneath them are. As Christians, we can fall into the trap of resting our ladders on the Law of God and our works. Yes, the higher we are the more we begin to believe that we are good folks and those beneath are bad. We are setting ourselves up for the rug to be pulled out from under us and the works we rest our salvation, our justification on, will come tumbling down. It is in those moments that the works that we thought were precious, those works that we think we can exchange to find peace with God, will be treated as unclean garments. The gold we treasure is but fool’s gold. They have no exchange rate and the ladder you’re on is coming down by the weight of them around your neck.
Folks, the Gospel does not have us look to our works for salvation and I know for me, that is a blessing. It looks to the work of Christ. We read in Romans 3:24, that we are “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”. Our salvation, our redemption found in Christ is a gift of grace. This is not saying that we should not love God and love our neighbor but recognizes that faith alone in Christ alone is the Gospel and not our works.
So love God and love your neighbor not out of an attempt to earn your salvation by your works. Love God and Love your neighbor out of gratitude that comes from the comforting truth that through Christ, you are forgiven.
Wynter is an Elder at Mariposa Reformed Baptist Church. Find out more at www.mariposachurch.org or email him at wynter@mariposachurch.org.
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