The Excellent Life

Does it matter?

Does it matter if I cut that guy off while I'm driving?

Does it really matter if I snap at my brother?

Does it matter if I do not do my work with excellence?

Does it really matter if I don't act like Christ right at this instant?

Sometimes, I think people don't notice how I live.

I forget that God always sees how I live.

Sometimes I forget this truth:

The question here is not whether you are representing the gospel, it is how you are representing it.

I forget that my life proclaims Christ. Always. 

Because I am a Christian and Christ is my life.

This side of heaven, I will not do perfectly. I'll use harsh words. I'll lie. I'll dishonor my parents. And when this happens, my own sinfulness does not detract from the power of the gospel, it illustrates why we need it.

I need the grace of God.  I need a perfect substitute to stand in my place before the throne of God.  I need a sinless Savior.  I need the Gospel. 

Jonathan Edwards, in his list of Resolves (which, by the way, is a highly convicting read), states this as his eighteenth resolve: "Resolved, to live so at all times, as I think is best in my devout frames, and when I have clearest notions of things of the gospel, and another world." What he is saying is this: When I am most sure of who I am and who God is, when I have the clearest view of the Gospel and what that means, and I can see how I should live because of that truth, that is how I resolve to live.

I cannot live a life that honors God on my own. The Good News of the Gospel is that because of Christ, I can live the excellent life. A life that "proclaims the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light", a life that declares me a member of a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God's own possession".   [1 Peter 2:9]