I remember the day Jesus became real to me. I had known about him previously, but at a moment in time when I was 10, I connected with my Savior heart-to-heart, and something changed. There was an internal awareness of the presence of Jesus in a way I hadn’t known before. How that happens exactly is a beautiful mystery. Scripture is pretty clear that all things, including every living being, were created through and for Jesus (Col 1:16), so I fully believe my life was already flowing with the life of Christ, yet in a moment of sheer grace, what I had no experience of before suddenly became my experience—Jesus was realer than real! Fifty plus years later, I can confidently tell you the life of Jesus in me continues to transform me up to this present moment.
There are certain times when I get stunned all over again with the exceeding goodness and generosity of God whose extravagant love pursues and draws in his children irresistibly until that heart-to-heart connection with him becomes realized and celebrated. This is the Good News that we call the Gospel. God having done for us what we could not do for ourselves in a million years.
Last week I experienced one of those stunning moments while reading the book of Titus when these few verses leapt out as a beacon of light to my soul:
“God our Savior and His overpowering love and kindness for humankind entered our world; He came to save us. It’s not that we earned it by doing good works or righteous deeds; He came because He is merciful. He brought us out of our old ways of living to a new beginning through the washing of regeneration; and He made us completely new through the Holy Spirit, who was poured out in abundance through Jesus the Anointed, our Savior. All of this happened so that through His grace we would be accepted into God’s covenant family and appointed to be His heirs, full of the hope that comes from knowing you have eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-7 in the VOICE)
Just…stunning. This, for me, is clear assurance of why I cannot mess up what God has already accomplished by his mercy. And any bad theology—any errant thoughts I may have along the way about who God is or who I am cannot overcome what God has already determined and knows to be true. “Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything!” (1 John 3:20)
God wanted to enjoy us forever and so he created and claimed us as his own before the foundation of the earth. The Trinity decided to embrace us in their love and to love us into wholeness by including us in Christ’s death and resurrection so that we find ourselves seated with them in heavenly places…at this very moment!
So just for fun to help all of us receive the simplicity of the Gospel like a little child, here are those same verses in Titus from The Word on the Street, a light-hearted adaptation (paraphrase) by Rob Lacey:
“After God’s passion and generosity got through, things changed: now there’s a liberation about us, a release. We look rescued, freed. We look relieved ‘cos it wasn’t a lifestyle change on our part that did it. It was God giving us a break. He signed us into his Spiritual Beauty Parlor, gave us the full works: washed us right through, so it’s like we’re reconceived, redeveloped, redelivered, reborn. Our Liberator, Jesus, massaged his Holy Spirit into us, all over us. And the end result is astonishing. Purified by his generosity, we walk out like princes and princesses who know they’re living life with no limits.”
In the moments we find ourselves concerned, discouraged or afraid, we’ve forgotten the simplicity of the Good News and we’re invited to return to our rest in the Father’s heart—our forever home where we already reside. It’s time to celebrate the goodness of Papa all over again! | 
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