Yeah, but Look at Him

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”  –Romans 3:23

“But officer, the guy in front of me was going faster than I was.”

How would this argument hold up if you were attempting to get out of a ticket for speeding?  It’s not likely that this would free you from your punishment.  We naturally have a tendency to justify our actions through a means of excuses or blaming others for our wrong-doing.  I’ve noticed it starts as a child.  Even at the tender age of 3 my daughter will look to avoid taking the blame for something when it’s obvious that she is the one at fault.  A glass of milk spills and she immediately looks to blame her brother or the dog.  Not one of us enjoy the realization that we are wrong in our actions.  Often times pride or arrogance will get in the way of us humbly accepting that we are wrong and then pursuing a corrective action to overcome the problem.  It’s much easier to justify our actions or place blame elsewhere and continue down the path of denial than to face the circumstance, learn from it and repent.

So it is with God’s love.  I have spoken to so many people who view God as the policeman in heaven watching over every move we make and writing down the details in a police blotter somewhere near the pearly gates.  They have a difficult time realizing that God is a loving Father longing to fellowship with His children and sees us through the image of Jesus Christ.  I look at it from this perspective.  Despite my desire, I cannot stop sinning.  As much as I want to not sin against God, it’s going to happen.  I estimate that I sin multiple times a day, but for this exercise let’s say it’s 3x / day from the moment I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord (I was 12).  At this point in my life with this calculation, I have sinned 37,778 times in my life {of course in reality it is much higher}.  If I live to be 80 years old, I would have sinned nearly 75,000 times (using this math).  How does God let someone with 75,000 sins into His perfect heaven to fellowship with Him for eternity?

He doesn’t !

So, we will all sin. That’s it.  It’s a fact of life and death.  From the moment we are born until the moment we die we will sin against God the Father.  Billy Graham, Mother Theresa, the Pope, Gandhi, Muhammad, Peter, Paul and yes even Mary equally sinned against the Father.  Because He demands perfection to enter heaven, He had to create a means of covering this gap.  In the old covenant, man would sacrifice the spotless perfect lamb in order for his and his families sins to be forgiven.  Enter in Jesus Christ and the new covenant between God and man.  God’s plan of closing the gap between our propensity to sin and His requirement for perfection was done through the death of a sacrificial lamb, namely His own Son.  Because Jesus Christ lived a perfect, spotless and sin-free life from birth to his death on the cross; He became the sacrifice for all mankind.  His death was sufficient to cover every sin ever committed up to that point, just like a lamb’s death would have covered the sins of a man and his family.  But, since that point in time (26 AD or so) there have been billions and billions of people on the face of the earth.  What about their sins?

Jesus Christ resurrection formed the new covenant between God and man.  Jesus went to hell on our behalf and took the sins of the world with him.  Then He rose from the grave and created a path of salvation for all mankind, for ever more.  God’s love for you is so unbelievable that He has given you a means to obtain forgiveness for the sins that separate you and He.  Because of our daily sin filled lives, we certainly don’t deserve this love, but He gives it anyway.  This is the grace by which Paul references throughout his New Testament writings.  Jesus Christ came to restore our connection and eternity with God the Father.  He alone has been set in place by God for this purpose.  Those that do not accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord are outside of this grace, and their unrighteousness will be judged by the Father one day.

As we draw closer to Easter, I want you to begin thinking about His sacrifice.  Accept the fact that you are sinful.  Since Adam’s original sin, man has been born into a sin filled existence.  We want to think we are not that bad, “I mean look at that guy over there, he’s much worse than me.” , seems to be a common belief.  We need to get over this feeling of superiority and comparing ourselves to other men.  There is only one benchmark to compare your life to and that is Jesus Christ.  To enter heaven requires that you you have lived a life of equal perfection and sinlessness when compared to Him, not when compared to “that guy over there”.  Acknowledge your sin daily and lay it down before the sacrificial Lamb of God.  Then pray for strength to turn from these ways.  Only through Him and His strength is this possible.  You cannot avoid sin on your own.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
Your grace is sufficient for my unrighteousness.  I am forgiven and washed by the death and resurrection of Your Son.  I stand before You condemned in my sin, yet take hold of Your salvation through my profession of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of my life.  I lay my sins at the foot of His cross and pray for strength to overcome this filth in my life.  In Your name I pray – Amen


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