A friend and I were talking the other day about only the good dying young. Seeing he is 75 and I am 68, we decided we weren’t good enough to die young, by human standards.
But then what is good enough? Both of us, on the surface, keep the ten commandments. We don’t kill or rob people. We go to church. While our parents were alive, we honoured them. And for some time before Mum went into a nursing home, I was her carer. We’re honest, and we don’t try to “keep up with the Joneses”.
But go under the surface, as Jesus said, keeping the spirit of the law, we don’t fare so well. We think things about people that are not kind. We SAY things about people (amongst ourselves) that are not kind. I dare say he thinks lustful thoughts, I certainly do at times, but we don’t talk about that, it would embarrass him!
And when it comes to Jesus’ law of love! Well! We really fail that one! All those sins of omission as well as the sins of commission! We don’t love our neighbours as ourselves, and we don’t love the Father at all times! We hear of someone in need and don’t help them. We don’t always love our enemies, let alone our neighbour!
So…we’re not good enough to fit in with the human standards to die young!
But what does God say? Are we good enough? Romans 3: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Even though our sin is not obvious on the surface, we have fallen short. So how do we get “up to scratch”? How do we get right with God? We can’t do it, we have fallen short. We are definitely not good enough!
But!
1 John 2:1…… we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus alone is righteous. He alone is worthy. The only way we can be counted righteous is because of Jesus. This is a miracle of grace.
He loved us SO much that He saved us. He redeemed us. He became sin for us so that we might receive what HE deserves. He shed His blood to cleanse us.
Seems to me, we need to depend on Jesus for everything!
Alleluia!
Light of Christ 