“Hello, my name is Elizabeth Turnage, and I’m a performance addict. Performance-based living draws me, and acceptance not based on what I do baffles me.”
Thankfully, for the most part, that was then, this is now. I will probably always struggle to some degree to simply rest in the reality of salvation — that the finished work of Christ is ENOUGH, but at least I know it in my mind and heart, and many days or moments, I live in this hopeful reality. Why not take a moment and rest, whether reading the rest of these words or just closing the computer, closing your eyes, and breathing in the good news of the gospel.
Sing, O Daughter of Zion;
shout aloud, O Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
O Daughter of Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away your punishment,
he has turned back your enemy.
The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you;
never again will you fear any harm.
On that day they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
The Lord your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:14-17
“…it is the gospel that continues to remind us that our day-to-day acceptance with the Father is not based on what we do for God but upon what Christ did for us in his sinless life and sin- bearing death. I began to see that we stand before God today as righteous as we ever will be, even in heaven, because he has clothed us with the righteousness of his Son.
Therefore, I don’t have to perform to be accepted by God. Now I am free to obey him and serve him because I am already accepted in Christ (see Rom. 8:1). My driving motivation
now is not guilt but gratitude.”
Jerry Bridges, “Gospel-Driven Sanctification” (Bridges 2003)
