Our Participation With God

We like to think so, but Jesus doesn’t need our efforts, really. It is easy to get trapped into thinking that we have to perform perfectly, otherwise the will of God will somehow completely unravel. But the remarkable thing about Jesus is that he does not need our efforts. The reality is, our efforts need Jesus. This is liberating! Jesus didn’t need the few loaves of bread and small fish when he fed the five thousand. Instead the bread and the fish needed Jesus to make them what they could not be on their own. In ministry, Jesus doesn’t need my words, my words need Jesus to make them what they can never be on their own. 

The remarkable thing about this is that even though God doesn’t need our efforts, he delights greatly in using and working through our efforts. Participation. God chooses to participate with us, to take what we offer and make it into something we could never give on our own. In this sense, the Christian way is a way of great joy and privilege, not labor and burden. 

In Christ we have become the righteousness of God. Our efforts could never produce any greater righteousness than the righteousness gifted to us in Christ. Therefore, our efforts are simply joyful participation with God in His work. Jesus doesn’t need our efforts, our efforts need Jesus. Thank God that He delights in taking what pathetic efforts we offer, and transforming them into miraculous and powerful works in the name of Jesus. Praise God!

~ by splanchnon on November 18, 2008.