Tuesday, January 12, 2010

A handkerchief...

I've noticed something interesting as I've been reading through Genesis. Their view of who God was, and the way they interacted with God is a lot like what the world is today.

The secular world believes that favour with God can be earned. They believe that there are select few people who communicate with Him, but they themselves cant. They believe if you're good, you go to heaven, and if you're bad, you die and go to hell. They see life as a set of scales.

I need to tell you about this idea that I have. Think of it as a parable if you will. An illustration.

The bible says that God is not just the alpha, he is also the omega. That means that he didn't just see what happened at the beginning. He doesn't just know what did, and what we said, and what we thought. He also knows what's going to happen. What we will do next month. What will happen next year. How it's all going to end.

God sees our lives like a giant canvas. A handkerchief if you will. Through this hanky there is a white thread that goes all the way through it which depicts our lifeline. Here's the deal. When we steal, that thread becomes black for a few stitches. When we lie, same thing happens. When we do anything that is against God's perfect code, the thread turns black for a few stitches.

So when we look at our lives, we tell God that we have done a lot of good. Look at everything we've done that's good, and that now we have the right to get into heaven. Who is he to judge us really?

Well that brings me to 2 specific points. First, He created the universe, He made the rules, therefore He has every right to judge us. His rules is that we need to be perfect. Second, when He looks at our lives, he doesn't see a scale, he sees a hanky. And even the tiniest black thread disqualifies us from His perfect model.

This ties in perfectly with Isaiah 64:6 "all our righteous acts are as filthy rags." This doesn't give us freedom to sin. This isn't an allowance, this doesn't mean we say "oh well, can never be good, might as well keep going the way I'm going" No. This is a crying out from a pleading heart to ask God to save us.

God reveals to us that the consequences of these black threads of our life are death, both physical and spiritual. That's why His revelation to the Jews started the ritual of sacrificing a perfect animal to cover those black threads. But even that wasn't enough. It had to be done once a year and it had to be a perfect lamb and the ritual had to be done in a certain way. Even then, the rabbi would be trembling with fear because of he'd made even a single tiniest mistake, he could have died. Messy business.

But there's good news. God Himself entered creation and lived a perfect life as a human being. Then He offered Himself as a sacrifice for all eternity. His blood covers all of our black threads, and all the ones that are yet to be stitched. It's a free gift that we don't deserve. free, but not cheap.

That's why when it says that the only way to Heaven is through Jesus Christ, it's not being exclusive, it's being inclusive. God doesn't offer cheap grace. Not a cheap sacrifice. But absolutely free.

All you have to do is accept it. And mean it.

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