Affirmation Monday – Romans 5: 8

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Whose Rules?

Yesterday, Psalm Sunday’s post generated some interesting discussion on what it means to be wicked and righteous. From God’s point of view, we are all unrighteous in a practical sense.

What I mean by that is that a practical righteousness would be sufficient to allow a person into heaven without any help from God. In effect, such a person would be as good as God himself. The Pharisees in Jesus’ time measured their righteousness by their compliance with the laws of Moses. Unbeknownst to them, there was a little flaw in their measurement system. Because they wrote most of the rules, they were a bit blind to how well they fulfilled them.

Imagine that you want to play baseball. You make the rules so that the pitcher can only pitch balls to you that you can hit. Then you demand that the umpire is a member of your team. Better yet, the umpire has to be a relative and a member of your team. When you hit the ball nobody on the other team is allowed to touch it until you have made it safely to home plate. Sound like a fun game? It is if you are on the right team.

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