Once again, I find myself looking back at the year past and peering forward at the one to come. As is no doubt the case with many, this is for me a bittersweet annual experience. By God’s grace, I can say that I have been partially successful in redeeming the time. But a little honest reflection convicts me that I could have, and should have, done better.
Sin, it would seem, is ever present with me, tainting even my best works.
But thanks be to God, for it is not my own works that justify me. Rather, I am acceptable to God “only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to [me], and received by faith [belief] alone.”
Truly, the grace of God is amazing toward sinners! It’s as if God were to say to us wretched rebels, “All your guilt, all your hopelessness, all your fear of death and of righteous judgment and of eternal punishment, these things I have taken away in my Son. Only believe in him and be saved from the wrath to come.”
Lux Lucet 