Reconciled

Romans 3:23-24 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”

Have you ever thought that you were good enough to get into heaven on your own? You may have always been raised up under solid gospel preaching, however, the majority of people today think that if they buy a few gifts for others at Christmas and give a little money to charity then their good works are enough to inherit them an eternity with God. In fact, one reason some do these good deeds are only to appease their own conscience from a god they have created in their mind. In the end, good people at best are covering up their guilty heart and mind with the “fig leaves of man-centered works” which has been the fashion from the beginning.

It does not take us very long to realize how good we actually are. When was the last time you balanced your checkbook? I have always tried to be good about keeping an accurate written record about what I have spent each day. Every time I buy something, I try to immediately write it down so that I will not forget. This can often be difficult when using the debit card that allows money to flow freely. This week, I finally sat down and began to balance my financial situation. While using electronic banking, I began to scroll down the list to find about seven transactions that I had totally forgotten about. The bank was telling the truth, and in my weak memory, I had to find a way to make reconciliation.

In Luke 18, a certain ruler asked Jesus, “Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus questioned him, “Why do you call me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.” You might think Jesus was trying to say that He was not good in this passage; however, He was actually questioning the heart of the ruler. Jesus went on to ask him about five of the Ten Commandments. The ruler told Jesus that he had kept them from his youth up. Jesus said, “Yet you lack one thing: sell all that you have, and distribute unto the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.” The ruler went away sorrowful because he was rich. His idol was money. The goodness he thought he had was a false image of reality much like my unbalanced checkbook.

Can you imagine trying to live a perfect life everyday? It is impossible. No matter how hard we may try to do good and right, we still come miserably short. Jesus said in Matthew 12:36, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” I thought balancing my checkbook was going to be a scary picture, but the day that God asks every man to give an account of their lives will be horrifying if they have not made preparations. It will be impossible to argue with God, just like it is impossible to argue with the bank when everything is recorded with dates, times and places of transactions.
Where does this leave us today? We have a major problem between God’s standards and ours. There is a mighty gulf that must be crossed. Even with our best efforts, we come so short.

What can we do? When I realized that I had missed the mark in my checkbook, I turned to my savings account and transferred enough money to cover all my mistakes. In God’s economy, we can’t repay the debts of our sins. They are too great, but what a promise we have in Jesus Christ “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled” (Colossians 1:20a, 21) This truth compels us to confess our mistakes, turn to God’s revealed truth and worship Him in humble submission for His saving grace!