Here is a little more elaboration on the question, "how do you get to heaven?"
Everyone of us is inherently bad. I know it sucks. You are bad. If you defend yourself right now you are only confirming your pride and displaying your anarchy towards the King and showing that you don't understand your state. You, me, your friends, our friends, coworkers, etc... we are all bad. In fact, we each have offended God. Today even. We have disobeyed Him, disrespected Him, belittled Him, ignored Him, and that is just some sins we have committed toward Him, not to mention sins we have committed against His people that He has made in His image. And this took place today. So, we have broken good laws that He put in effect.
Now if He wants to dismiss offenses that is good and fine but it is not just. That would be like letting a criminal go free. If someone breaks laws and if the judge just says, 'I don't care you are dismissed' that is not justice. That is ignoring the issue that the law has been broke and there is a punishment due. If no one is punished then it is like saying the law really isn't that important. Let me just say it is. All God's law is important and life giving. Every last letter of the law that was drafted with complete knowledge of the world that He created and each part of the law is to preserve that which is good about creation. Let's illustrate this a little. Take the opposites of the law and apply them to yourself. Others steal from you, others cheat you, they lie to you, they hate you, etc... that is clearly bad so the law is good. We want the law. So, ignoring the punishment doesn't work because the law is good and should be upheld.
That puts us in a predicament. We are saying that we have broken the law and it would be non justice if punishment is dismissed. But, we are in real big trouble because we have broken the commands everyday. Let's look at a few laws, loving God, idolatry, and coveting. Ok, most of us have broken the first command everyday. We do not love God like we should in fact most days we don't even think about Him. We wake up and take a breath but we do not give thanks for the oxygen or the sun rising or that our hearts are still beating. In fact, we ignore Him completely on some days. We don't even entertain a single thought about Him. So, strike one. Then we can look at idolatry. Every day we commit idolatry. Sometimes it is with our food. We think that we get our life from our food. We think that without it we perish. We think about what we are going to have for lunch and how it will taste. We plan our days around our meals and idolize the food that we put in our bellies. Idolatry. Or maybe you aren't a food person but you enjoy your hobbies. Maybe your hobby is TV. You love your favorite TV program and you schedule your week around your show. You have to watch that show or DVR it so you can watch it later. You idolize the show. Or maybe you idolize something else, your popularity, your job, your car, your favorite sports team, etc... Strike two. How about coveting? Desiring what you don't have. The opposite of being content. Everyday I am sure you see something that you want. An advertisement or something that a friend has. Or something that you drive by. Most of us covet everyday. Strike three. There are three broken laws. Maybe we don't break those three specific laws every day but there are plenty more that we break so let's just say we break 3 a day. Now I am 26 years old and I will subtract 5 years that maybe I won't be morally responsible for. So, 21 years, 3 sins a day equals 22,995 sins. Imagine standing before a Judge with that many speeding violations. You would be in trouble.
Now God in His great love for you is not going to make you pay. He actually made His son pay for you. The judge, who with ample evidence shows your transgressions, then takes off His robe and steps from behind his bench and says, "I'll pay. I'll be the one that takes the punishment." Then invites you to believe. If you believe and trust then you get granted access to His kingdom.
Now what does He mean by "believe" because the bible says "even the demons believe and shudder" so what does Believe mean? It means that you actually completely trust. There was a silly pastor with a BB gun that asked who believes I can shoot this balloon with the BB gun? Most people raised their hands. Then he said, "who believes enough that they would hold the balloonwhile I shoot it?" Less hands on that one. Then finally he asked, "who believes enough to hold it in their teeth?" One guy kept his hand up so this pastor invited him on the stage and took aim.... He shot the balloon and nearly lost his job but the point is you can say that you believe without really being willing to make a change. It is easy to sit in a crowd and say "Jesus is my sacrifice. He paid for what I deserve." It is a completely different thing to 'hold it in your teeth.'
Do you believe?
No comments:
Post a Comment