Shawn Lawlor

I am a true and beloved child of God. I am safe and held in His love and grace eternally, and have been so since before the foundations of the universe. This, because of the unfathomable love and sacrifice of my Lord and King Jesus Christ. In my Father's sovereign omniscience He “knew” me before he knit me together in my mother's womb. I was not born to heavenly parents, but created by God for His glory at conception. I came into this world known by God as His creation, a baby. I was also under the dreadful curse of sin and darkness, due to the fall of man, and my own sinful desires. No one needed to teach me how to be broken and sinful, I was a “natural.” All of us are under this curse in our flesh (Romans 3:10) but this was never my final state.

I accepted Christ and I believe in Him and Him alone. I am made new, healed and literally perfected in the blood of my Christ Jesus who took upon Himself that dreadful darkness and sin on the cross of Calvary. This death and eternal separation from the light and love of God is the punishment for sin that I and all humanity deserve in our fallen condition. Christ's Atonement happened ~ and for one terrible moment Jesus Christ became my sin, so that I am made His righteousness! When God sees me now, He sees the perfection of His Son, and not the brokenness that my Jesus took from me. He allowed Himself to die as the serpent struck his heel, yet He rose again on the third day, thus crushing the serpents head and defeating death! This is my hope and life in Christ. This is all of mankind's only hope.

This is the gift of God. We can not earn this gift, nor do we deserve it, but it is Christ's to give us freely if we choose to accept it! The choice is life or death, hope or despair and eternal darkness separated from the presence of God forever. But we are not hopeless for He has made a way. All this for His glory and in His love for us! The Atonement has nothing really to do with what we can bring to our own salvation, and everything to do with Him and what He has done to save us. What more can we “add” to what God has done? In His perfect love He desires to save all who call on Him, and He will forever dwell with us again, His children who accept Christ as their personal Savior. Those who confess that Jesus is Lord, the only Son of God, repent and turn from their sin, and believe that God has done this glorious work will be saved! Nothing else will bring us home to God and out of utter ruin.

Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of the Living God and He is God. He is the third personage of the One and only God being in perfect union with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Christ was never created. He is not my elder brother, nor the brother of satan, but He is the ever existing Son and Word of God who literately condescended and took on flesh for our sin and our salvation. He stepped out of His perfect Heavenly Estate and stepped into this broken world to claim back all of those who put their faith completely in and on Him and Him alone for their hope. There is no “works” that can be added to the finished work of the cross when Christ cried out “It is Finished!” He is the perfect Lamb who died to ransom the slave. He is my Savior, my God, my King. The Great I AM who has plucked me from the fire. All the Glory be His.