Lord, who may dwell in
your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? The one whose walk is
blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; whose
tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on
others; who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord; who
keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind; who lends
money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the
innocent.
God instructs us to be perfect. His commands call us to
always get it right and to never make mistakes. God calls us to walk a
blameless path, pursue righteousness, speak only truth and refuse to let
anything foul come from our tongues. He instructs us to genuinely love our
neighbors and always care for those in need. And how do we respond? We make
mistakes…we get things wrong…we use our words and actions to cut others at the knees.
In short, we fail the test…miserably. From the very start, we have been
burdened with our own sinful nature…as evident in Genesis 8:21, “man, even though every inclination of his
heart is evil from childhood.” The original sin is the cause…the one
started when Adam took a bite of that fruit in the Garden of Eden…the one that
is programmed into each life that is born into this world. The sin that from
birth, leads us to paths of destruction and separates us from our Creator. But
thankfully, the story does not end with us wallowing in a pit of misery that we
alone created. No, thankfully God sent a perfect form of rescue in the man
named Jesus Christ. Thankfully God realized that we were never going to get it
right…God realized that we were never going to meet his expectations on our
own. We would simply continue to fail and all hope would be lost. When God took
the form of man through Christ and died on that cross, he restored the
relationship between God and man that man had destroyed. He made things right
again. Because of Christ, God no longer sees our failures and shortcomings, but
rather sees our righteousness through Christ. It’s as if when God gazes upon us,
he sees Christ standing before us, calling us his own. We can try all we want,
under our own merits and achievements, to “get things right” before God…but we
will undoubtedly fail. And we will stand only exhausted from the process…no
closer to “earning” or salvation than when we began. It is only through genuine
faith in Christ as the Savior and one atoning sacrifice, that we can get it
right. It is only through Jesus that we will be able to stand before God’s
throne and be welcomed into his kingdom as one of his own. To God alone be the
glory!
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