Equal Weight

We live in a civilization governed by laws in which every citizen must abide. If someone in our society breaks a law, whether they knew their actions were a crime or not, they are judged according to the law. In the bible, God gave the Israelites laws to govern their spiritual lives. But unlike in our earthly society where one crime may be more grievous than another, thereby carrying a greater punishment, with every spiritual law the sentence is the same. James explains it this way in chapter 2, verses 10 and 11 which says:

"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.' If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker."

This is why sin is so difficult. Any, and every, sin carries the death sentence. The bible reminds us that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” So it doesn’t matter if you bomb an orphanage or if you steal a sucker from a baby, they both carry the blanket sentence of death. With both sins one can repent, and yes, with both sins one can be forgiven - even forgiven of killing children. That is our God. That is his system. It may not be what you would’ve designed, and it may not seem fair through your human eyes. But just as it is just as difficult to get to heaven for the worst of sinners as it is for the most righteous of us all, we have all sinned and every sin carries with it the death penalty. But thank God for Jesus’ blood. Without it every one of us would only have hell to look forward to when we die.

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I’m sure the wages of sin doesn’t make sense to most people. Lying about someone you don’t like carries the same penalty as killing someone. And if we’ve sinned just once within our entire lifetime, we deserve death, according to God’s weights and measures. Likewise, our best act of righteousness is like filthy rags before God. The bottom line is that we don’t measure up. Besides Jesus, none of us ever have and none of us ever will. But James reminds us of how holy God is. Even a little white lie cannot exist in his presence. If you’ve lied just once in your life and that is all the evil you ever did, you are now a sinner destined for hell just like someone who has sinned a thousand times every day of their life. So I challenge you to understand what Jesus did for us, and to understand that to God every sin carries equal weight. So whatever we’ve done, we need to repent as if that one action could send us to hell. Because without the blood of Jesus to cover it, it would.

The Rod

Were you ever spanked as a child? I was. Depending on the severity of the offense, my parents would either use their hand, or if I did something that was really bad, they would use the dreaded belt. Most of the time, I would agree that I deserved what I got. I did something wrong, and I deserved to be punished. I used to think it was that simple. But now I understand that their punishment for me was more out of love than anger; that their desire was to discipline me so that I would learn and grow, not that I would suffer. Proverbs chapter 23 verses 13 and 14 puts it this way:

"Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with a rod, he will not die. Punish him with a rod and save his soul from death."

You see, God approves of a parent disciplining their child. Probably because often times he needs to discipline us. Not because he wants to hurt us, but as proverbs says, he wants to “save our soul from death”. The current trend in our society is that most any form of physical punishment amounts to abuse. But proverbs teaches us otherwise. It says that if you punish a child with a rod, he will not die. But instead, the punishment may save his soul from death. Whether children or believers want to admit it or not, we need guidance. Sometimes that guidance comes in the form of discipline - even physical discipline. And I would submit to you that disciplining a child out of love is not a form of abuse, but it is an act of love which may ultimately save the child’s soul from death.

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When my parents used to spank me, they would often say, “this is going to hurt me more than it is going to hurt you”. In my heart I used to roll my eyes as if to say, “Yeah right. I’m the one being spanked. I’m the one who will feel the pain. How can it possibly hurt you more than it will hurt me?” But now I understand the sentiment behind that saying. Punishment out of love can be painful to the one doing the punishing. They may not want to cause you physical pain, but it is truly for your own good. If they didn’t carry out the punishment, you may begin to believe that there are no consequences to your actions. But when we are punished, we learn that there is. And in learning so, whether the discipline comes from God or our parents, we learn the truth behind the proverb; that being corrected now may ultimately save our soul from death. We learn that being punished now, may ultimately train us to avoid future calamity.

God Is Everywhere

Do you ever think about how big God is? Not in the context of mass as in how big he is in size as we do physical beings, but how big he is in reach as in his omnipresence. God reveals his omnipresence to Jeremiah in chapter 23 verse 23-24. It says:

"Am I only a God nearby, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him? Declares the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? Declares the Lord."

When I read this, I realize how finite our imaginations are. We only understand space and time as we’ve been exposed to here on earth. But I think of heaven as a place without time and God as being able to supersede what we understand as space. Can we really comprehend being in all places at all times? I don’t think we can, because we only understand the laws of physics and the temporal limitations that we’ve been exposed to on earth. And can we understand eternity? No beginning and no end? I’ve heard it said that when Jesus came to earth to die for us, he stepped out of eternity and into time. In other words, he existed in a place where time doesn’t exist and stepped into our world where time is linear and measured. You might be thinking to yourself, what does it matter? Well, I think it helps to think about these things because only then can we begin to understand the majesty of our God. The bible tells us that his ways are much higher than our ways and his thoughts are much higher than our thoughts. This portion of scripture is just one example.

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We should never forget about how incredible our God is. There is nothing too difficult for him. Though we may not be able to grasp it, he exists everywhere all of the time. God created space and time along with the world in which we now live. It just gets me thinking… If God created space and time, what were things like without it?

Contrite Heart

You may have heard it said that we are to “surrender to God”. But have you ever given thought as to what that means? Does it mean that we are to surrender our possessions, our job, our families or our lives? Though we should be willing to let go of any of these things if God calls us to, I don’t think that is what “surrendering to God” means. I believe that surrendering to God is a call for us to stop fighting against God; to stop striving in our own strength, to humble ourselves before him, to be broken in spirit and to be contrite of heart. Psalm 51, verses 16 and 17 puts it this way: 

"You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."

We always fail in our own strength. We might find success in man’s eyes when we strive in our own strength, but it is impossible to be right before God in our flesh. Because when we operate in the flesh, we inevitably sin. We need to realize that we need, I mean truly need, God before we can truly live. And sometimes we need to be broken before we can realize this. Like a wild mare needs her spirit broken before it can come under the control of it’s master, we too need to be broken - and continue to be broken - to surrender control to our master. God wants us to be broken and contrite before him, because that is a sign of true surrender.

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Why is it that many times we have to hit “rock bottom” before we turn to Jesus or take our commitment to him seriously? I believe it is because when we hit rock bottom we become broken in spirit. When we hit rock bottom we are open to having a contrite heart. We realize that we truly need Jesus. Self-sufficiency is an illusion. Hitting rock bottom only opens our eyes to the truth; the truth that Jesus is the only way, the only truth and the only life. It is my hope that you and I will not have to face a calamity to wake us up from our sleep. My hope for you and me, is that we truly surrender to Christ, that we recognize our need for him and that we become broken in spirit and contrite of heart.

God's Mercy

I encourage you to take a moment to stop and think about how gracious and merciful our God is. It was impossible for us to elevate to him so he came down to us. And because he is a holy God and sin cannot exist in his presence, he provided a way for us, even in our sin, to exist with him. We couldn’t pay the wages of our sin, so he sent his son to die for us. He did all of the work, felt all of the pain, and he thought up a plan where all we have to do is receive. Like a judge looking for a legal loophole, God found a way for us to avoid getting what we deserve. Psalm 103 verse 10 goes on to say:

"he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities."

No, he doesn’t. Because if he did, we’d all deserve eternal damnation; we’d all deserve hell. And despite our sin nature, which on our best day still causes us to stumble and fall in our efforts to be holy and righteous, God does not treat us as our sins deserve. I’ve heard it said that grace is getting what we don’t deserve, and mercy is not getting what we do deserve. This verse from Psalms proves this saying to be true. So, I encourage you to praise and thank God with all of your heart for what he did for us. From the instant we were born, we’d lost. No one is righteous enough to stand in God’s presence, not one. But he loved us so much that he did not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. That is what we call the “free gift”. Because the blood of Jesus makes this possible.

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God does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. There is nothing we can do on our own to earn eternity in heaven. Nothing. But by God’s grace he gave us what we didn’t deserve; the perfect spotless blood of his only son to cover our sins. And by God’s mercy we will not get what we do deserve, which is eternal hell where the bible says there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Why? The verse in Psalm 103 states it quite well. “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities”. This is amazing grace. This is incredible mercy.