This may not come as a big shock to you, but I don’t understand God.
I really feel like His trouble would have been better served if he had set up a sin discount program. He went and paid for all of my sin without me having to do anything for it…but imagine if He had done partial payment instead! That way, I could feel better about myself since I chipped in some. I could punish myself for my sins and earn the rest of my forgiveness! Wouldn’t that help me remember not to do it again? I’d think so.
However, the Only wise God seems to think my help in his plan of salvation is tantamount to a three year old wanting to help her dad design a website… Cute, but counterproductive.
The whole point is to understand that you shouldn’t feel good about yourself. We must find our identities in Christ. And anyway, you still get to deny yourself daily and take up your cross to follow Him. To me, it’s more like a three-year-old destroying her dad’s iMac on purpose and then later asking him to put what’s in her piggy bank toward getting a new one. Even so, all analogies break down at some point.
Hmm, need stronger analogy.