Day 31 – Philippians 2:13

I’m not afraid to call myself a Christian, or a follower of Christ, or a believer. But later in this letter, Paul refers to the believers as saints. The greek word means holy ones. I am a believer, so it is right to call me a saint. I’m holy. I’m pretty uncomfortable saying that.

I’ll gladly call myself a sinner. If anything, I’ve started feeling more sinful since becoming a believer. The light came in, and lit up the dark, dirty room of my heart. And now that I hate sin, the struggle is more violent than it ever was before. But this struggle–Jesus already said how it ends. It is finished. I’m free. God doesn’t call me a sinner– he calls me a saint. I have everything I need to be Jesus’ bodily presence here on earth right now. Ooofh.

God is holy. He doesn’t just live on the clouds in the sky, or in the far recesses of outer space–he’s outside of space itself. Absolutely inaccessible–not even on the same continuum as us.

But he came here. The holy one crossed that gap from Nowhere to our universe, and came close–into our streets–into our presence–into our hearts! Heaven himself wears us like dirty clothes.

But the holy one doesn’t wear dirty clothes. He bled to death until we were clean.
(Gross, and intense.) With him in me now, I feel less clean, though–not more. Side by side, the contrast between us is stark. He came into my heart because he already cleaned me up for himself, and that very thing shows me the sin still remaining. I’m saved already, but I’m also still in the process of being saved. It is an uneasy tension.

God sees my sin, but he calls me holy. And he doesn’t lie. The first order of things is passing away. And it is a fearsome & wondrous thing to behold.

Jared Wilk