The Rock - of stumbling

This is Uluru (Ayer's Rock), probably the biggest rock on Earth. Well, you can climb this rock and build your house on it and let it support you. Or, your 4X4 wheeler can slam on its walls and break you into pieces.

I am still on the trail of "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God" - the Rock. This Rock though can make people stumble.
Have a look at what Paul says in Rom 9:33

"Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."

I am sometimes amazed that many Christians that I know of do not have a problem with faith. Not to put them down, of course, if the Gospel is something you do and you have done what it is , of course, it need not function more in your Christian walk., the doing experience has been done so you can put that on the shelve. Yet the Gospel is not what you have to do.

The Gospel is too good to be true, and our minds can stumble at the promise that by Christ's work, our sins have been forgiven. People that I know of do not seem to worry about it any longer nor wonder at it. However, I do meet people, a few of them, who say to me - this promise is so amazing, my mind sometimes can not wrap itself around it. I think these latter people are hit by its impact, just like it hits me.

You and I can stumble at this Rock. Our minds can be so bungled up that we go back to doing some form of works to get right with God. In other words, we can fall into unbelief and go back to doing the Law as a means of getting on the good side of God. Not only are we idol makers, we are law makers too. We are superb in adding to what is free.

Although to some the Gospel is a one off experience, I now realize, boy, do I need to hear it said of me - Christ died for your sins, he loves you and has answered for you.

Let me cite an example...have a look at Romans 7, the teaching that we are sinners and saints at the same time. Now, with the revival of Calvinism in evangelia, some are now adhering to the Lutheran simul iustus et pecator. The thing though is that though they admit they are both sinner and saint, they focus on their saint side, while I, for some reason, get to focus on the sinner side of me. Because I live with myself, and I know more my failings, the sinner side of me makes me sometimes wonder about my saintly side. Hence, I can start doubting if I am a saint and even if acknowledging the sinner I am, I can say, I am so much a wretch, how can God do that?

You can forget the Rock, the one outside you. So I need this Rock coming down to crush my doubts because this Rock says - it is done, finished, it is taken away, carried in my Body and nailed with me on the tree, my Cross is greater than your sins. I need to hear the Rock (which is Christ) to say to me - sin does not have the final say in your life - my Cross and I do. Amen.