Church Notes: Back to Basics

We can't do anything to earn salvation. There are no certain rules to follow, no cut off line of doing enough good stuff. Nothing. This isn't a new message, it's one I've heard on a semi-regular basis for as long as I can remember. And that's what Pastor Todd talked about in church yesterday. The thing is, even though I've heard this who knows how many times before, I need to be reminded. I need to be reminded that there is nothing special about me, and that I really do deserve to go to hell. Imagining the court room scene really hit me yesterday. God is on the judgement seat, I'm the accused, and Satan is the one doing the accusing. All the awful things he says are true. I do deserve eternal punishment. Then Jesus steps up. "She's mine. I bought her with my  blood. She's mine." Not of anything I can do. Bet because for some reason I don't understand, He loves me. He paid my price out of love. I can never earn that, never live up to that. But I can live for Him. Because He paid the price for my life in blood, in a sacrifice I can't even begin to imagine. Read a medical description of the cruxifiction sometime. The love that would do that blows me away. How do we so often forget that? Forget the price and forget what it means to be washed in the blood?