If the law is broken, then I’ve got to pay up…And even though I understand that the Atonement is there to pay the debt for me, I still don’t really understand. I don’t understand that it’s precisely because I *am* a sinner, utterly undeserving of anything heavenly, that Christ comes in and saves me. Even though I’m hopelessly imperfect no matter how hard I try, He still loves me. How can He love me?!? I make so many mistakes.

Yeah, I often think the same things too. Your first sentence is right. If the law is broken, then I’ve got to pay up. Someone has to pay for our sins and mistakes. But that’s where the power of the cross lies. We had to pay; but Jesus paid for us. We can’t do anything to pay for our mistakes or wrongdoings. We’re just too sinful. That’s why God sent his son: because he knew we couldn’t pay for it ourselves. Think of it: I am righteous before God, free from all accusation and condemnation because of what Christ has done! (2 Cor 5:21, Col 1:22) Thanks for the post!

It’s amazing how God can take our feelings of inadequacy and turn something beautiful out of it. We have to despair of trying to do it on our own. When God’s law meets our shortcomings we become aware of sin. This is not a pleasant discovery.

“By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:20

Before Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Simon Peter swore he would even lay down his life for Jesus, yet Jesus knew what was in Simon Peter’s heart and said , “Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.” John 13:38.

Christ’s realism collides with our human fantasies.

His realism tears us down in despair, then builds us up again in hope. His love is a perfecting love, which takes us and makes us more loveable.

Like you said…

“”"He picks up the pieces of my shattered soul and patiently, lovingly, painstakingly fits them back together again, each time into something a little more glorious than the last (until I go and shatter it again).”"”

and

“I don’t understand that it’s precisely because I *am* a sinner, utterly undeserving of anything heavenly, that Christ comes in and saves me.”

Out troubled hearts meet his kindness. In Jn 14 he explains why we should not be troubled in heart.

What does he require of us when he says, “Let not your hearts be troubled.”? Jn 14:1 …Ye believe in God, believe also in me. (Jn 14:1). We should believe in Christ and hear his words. He describes the heavenly rest he has prepared for us. And to what end has he done this “that where I am there ye may be also.” Can anything in this life even stand out in the glare of that weighty promise? To be with Him and the Father?

Christ presents himself as the way to the Father. And promises that we shall do even greater works by the Spirit of truth. What confidence we have before God as he has “by one offering hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” Heb 10:14!

The same Jesus who empowers us to do his will. “And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”

Christ calls us to believe. And yet it is he who works everything. The more we believe His words, and see how he has accepted us, the more recklessly we can obey him, even when the rest of the world calls us fools.

blessings,