Throw the Scale Away. Victory Awaits.

I must have stepped on the scale a thousand times, those years where weight and my own ability to slay my life felt carried, heavy in my hands.

Little did I know, this self-management had been carried, not just from my mass, but to my life, heart, religion, and thinking about God himself.

I grew up with a strong sense of right and wrong, pay back and repentence, guilt and conviction. The scale was vital, necessary, center of all existence.

Worse yet, somehow I missed the grace of God.

My own worth twisted heavy in my consciousness that tossed around the lie, one that says, I was responsible for each and every victory or defeat in my life.

Somehow I had unknowingly crawled up on the throne, tossed Jesus off, like the game of “King of the Mountain” I played on my grandparents grassy hill as a child.

I had thought it was about winning, being better, working, striving, using all MY efforts to shine high and glorious at the top of a mound I had attained for myself.

And then, law met grace.

In that wildly powerful service, every striving and effort felt like filthy rags, and the weight of my sin pressed down so hard, all I could do to live was, recognize the grace of God.

I saw Him high and lifted up, as I knelt and groaned in the aching of my sin; striving, works and religious performance that had attempted to manipulate my Savior to love me…

His glory shines in the darkness all around me. It was then, the scale was thrown away.

I pick up Romans this morning, in the quiet of dawn, house quiet, four sleeping heads, embracing the stillness of sleep.

He met me in the story of Abraham, God’s righteousness counted as faith, God’s grace coming to meet him as he believed in the One who had made him.

“Let God be true, but every man be a liar.” (Romans 3:28) Hard, either/or dialogue trading the world for a Father who loves us despite our sin.

And yet, where did we get this message of religion that says, God will love us more, the better people we are?

Or the striving that promises, we will get more, deserve more, be forgiven more if we moan in our ignorance, or…God who gives grace only to the worthy?

Hasn’t Christ already died, exchanging ALL our sin; that which we have done or will ever do….for His blood and righteousness…

True life is only attainable through grace.

Not being weak in faith, Abraham did not consider his own body….He counted all flesh dead at 100 years old…and so was considered Sarah, his wife….

Yet, God chose to use him. God called him as a father to the nations.

Abraham did not waver in his unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. What God promised, Abraham knew His God was able to perform it.

Yet, I get out my scale, time and time again, because let’s face it…

The world loves carnal saviors.

Fleshly eyes always like to promote people above Jesus, man’s ways supposedly equating to some ladder that can help people climb their way to God.

But, “Grace alone”. Jesus cries, “It is finished. Salvation is found in my sacrifice, solely.”

Heaven tells us, “Rejoice, your day of salvation is at hand.” It is by faith, believing in the promises He has said, that leads us where He calls and commands.

Obedience is the pathway to true happiness.

Romans 2:16 tells us, “God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to the gospel.” Glory, honor, and peace will bless, everyone who works what is good.

We don’t get more of God, by the scales we set up for ourselves, or by human striving to get Him.

We already have what He has promised us, paid for by His blood….

We have already received grace, and apostleship for obedience to the faith among the nations, for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:5)

So, let’s throw the scales away. Salvation isn’t a game of who is better or who is worse, a yoke we carry alone, to achieve greater holiness or goodness.

Oswald Chambers tells us, “Jesus is asking us to get beside Him and take one end of the yoke, so that we can pull together.”

“To those who have no might, He increases strength.” (Isaiah 40:29)

Any burden God places upon us, isn’t always just because we have sinned, but so we can learn….

He is with us in the suffering, He joins us in the burden baring, He takes the grapes of our lives and through crushing, reveals the sweetest wine.

“No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God living within the human spirit.” (Oswald Chambers)

So, let’s throw away our scales.

We already have victory, victory that doesn’t come through us, but was won by our Jesus, who loves us enough to shed His blood on a tree.