We all seem to sense there is something missing and whether we know it or not we are always trying to bridge the gap. There are many things we try, but these attempts fall short.
One bridge that many people have tried is RELIGION. We think that maybe if we go to church enough times that God will just overlook our sins. But Matthew 7:21-23 says "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"
Don't forget that one of God's major characteristics is that He is just and will punish the guilty. Although being religious may be good, it can never pay the penalty of death for our sin. We wouldn't let a convicted criminal go free just because he went to a few meetings on how to be a good citizen. Justice must be carried out. The punishment for sin is death, not going to church.
Another bridge people have tried is PHILOSOPHY. Many religions today are simply philosophies on how to reach God. The problem with that is that all these philosophies are manmade solutions. 1 Corinthians 1:20 says "Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?"
We can not eliminate the problem with a philosophy. Regardless of what man in his wisdom may come up with, what God says will always be right. All the philosophy in the world can never pay the penalty for sin.
Some people think they can bridge the gap by doing GOOD WORKS. Ephesians 2:8-9 says "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast."
Some people believe that God will be impressed by their actions and gladly let them into Heaven. But what is the standard for good? Since it is God's Heaven, I'm guessing we would probably have to use His standard which would be perfection. So even if we just failed once, we would still be short of God's standard. The death penalty would have to be paid for that one sin.
Isaiah 64:6a says "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags."
If I were to work really hard to make you the best batch of cookies you have ever eaten, but you found out that I had a disease like say leprosy, a disease that you would get just from me touching the cookies, would you eat them? Of course not. They would be contaminated. That is exactly what God says about us. Every deed we do, no matter how good it may seem, is unacceptable to God because we've contaminated it with sin. It's like a filthy rag.
The other way we try to bridge the gap is by doing the BEST WE CAN. First of all, do you think that anyone really tries the best they can 100% of the time? No team wins a game just because they try their best. When you take your car to get repaired you don't just want them to do the best they can to fix it. You want it done right. God's standard is perfection and He will accept nothing short of that as an entrance requirement to Heaven.
I'm sure we all sin at least once a day. Let's say you live to be 70 years old. You will have offended God over 25,550 times in your lifetime. Do you think a court would let you get off with committing 25,550 crimes? No way! James 2:10 says "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."
All of our efforts to bridge this gap and get over to God don't work. The good news is that God personally provided a solution in the person of Jesus Christ!
More to come...
No comments:
Post a Comment