Unforced part 2
You can't force grace, or rest, or mercy... or love. Up until John the Baptist the Kingdom suffered violence and the violent took it by force (or TRIED to take it by force). But then Jesus came and showed us a more excellent way. He came and showed us that we don't have to earn Daddy's approval, or love. Daddy always has and always will love us. We just didn't know it. So Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit--HIS Spirit--which is our love receptor, so that we could RECEIVE and RELEASE the love that has always been present. See, the cross didn't change you into something that God could love. He already loved you. The cross changed you into something that could receive His love. That's the difference between Adam (the son of God) and Jesus (the BELOVED Son of God). God loved them both. But Jesus let Himself be loved. He knew that Daddy loved Him. He knew who He was. The biggest problem I have with religion is that it tries to force you to be someone you're not. It basically says, "You aren't good enough right now, but if you do this this and this (whatever your culture has decided holiness is) then someday you might be good enough." It's the carrot dangling on the end of the stick, but it's always out of reach. There's always, as Jesus put it, one thing you lack. Not even Moses, the mediator of that Old Covenant, could get into the Promised Land on his own merit. It can't be done. With man it is impossible. But with God ALL THINGS are possible. The Law wasn't given so that we could try to keep it and thereby earn our own righteousness. The Law was given to show that we CAN'T keep it. It was the schoolmaster that brought us to Christ. Because while we couldn't do it... He did it. He finished it. And He did it both for us and as us. He brought us out of the world's economy of works and labor and He brought us into rest. That's what the Promised Land IS. It's the rest of God. (And if I can say it like this... in the Old Covenant we had some of Him, a limited understanding, but now we have the rest of Him. Now we have all of Him. Now we are filled to overflowing with Him!) But even still we try to force it. We try to be a "good Christian" according to what we do. It's not about what you do. It's about what you believe. Because what you do flows from what you believe. You might have some limited success at the beginning with behavior modification, but at the end of the day you are who you are. So the real trick is finding out who you REALLY are. The real trick is getting away with Jesus so you can LEARN how to rest as you spend time with the One who finished the work. Not trying to be someone else, but letting Jesus (God in the flesh, love in a body) be Himself in you! That's when it's real. That's when it stops being religion and starts being relationship. That's when you get gripped by grace instead of trying to grab it with your own power. That's when it flows. That, my friends, is when it's unforced.