How Hard Life Can Be; How Little We Meditate

We are meant to live and die in the joy of the comfort [of belonging to Jesus].  That so few Christians do is a testimony to both how hard life can be and how little we meditate on what it means to belong to Christ.

From The Good News We Almost Forgot by Kevin DeYoung

Q. What do you need to know in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort of belonging to Jesus? 

First, how great my sins and misery are; 

• Romans 3:9,10 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one.” 
• 1 John 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

Second, how I am delivered from all my sins and misery; 

• John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
• Acts 4:12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” 
• Acts 10:43 “To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

Third, how I am to be thankful to God for such deliverance.

• Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. 
• Romans 6:13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 
• Ephesians 5:8-10 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 
• 1 Peter 2:9,10 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

The Heidelberg Catechism Lord's Day 1

We find this comfort by admitting our sin, instead of excusing it; by trusting in Another instead of ourselves; and by living to give thanks instead of being thanked.

From The Good News We Almost Forgot by Kevin DeYoung