Have You Ever...?

Have you ever held a grudge, perhaps wearing a smile while seething inside, refusing to forgive or quietly longing for someone’s professional or relational ruin?

Have you ever decided to do the right thing “when you feel like it” rather than when it should be done?

Have you ever looked at someone other than your spouse & let your imagination run wild?

Have you ever used a loophole in the rules or the law to take advantage of someone else?

Have you ever used a technicality (we didn’t shake on it, or I didn’t sign…) to excuse yourself from a commitment?

Have you ever used antagonism or intimidation to keep the peace or get your way?

Have you ever prayed for yourself and your loved ones without praying for those who have hurt you or disagree with you?

If you answered “yes” to at least one of these questions, your action(s) proclaimed your independence from God, and no amount of personal effort can bridge the distance you’ve created between you and God. Only God’s love extended through the cross can bring you back into community with God.

In Matthew 5:17, Jesus is clear that he did not come to abolish or change the Law, but to fulfill it. Like the questions above, the Law was simply meant to give us a reflection of ourselves, providing a true understanding of the depth of our sin and our need for grace. It’s not the Law that is heavy, but rather our guilt that the Law exposes.

We like to think that we’re pretty good. We can easily draft a list of people worse than us. But it only takes one sin, one proclamation of independence by choosing to determine good and evil apart from God’s input, to end our dependence on God.

If we were created for community with God, then sin, being a declaration of independence, is a rejection of our reason for existence.

When we do so and then recognize our need for grace, we learn what it means to be poor in spirit, meaning that we begin to grasp that we have nothing to close the gap between us and God apart from the love expressed through the cross. His grace, offered through the cross, is always available and covers those who trust him even before we recognize our newest declarations of independence for what they are.

Repentance is the lifelong process of recognizing our continual proclamations of independence, God’s resulting heartache, being humbled by his grace and acceptance, and longing to draw closer to him.

In Mark 10:17-18, a young man asked,

“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

In other words, eternal life is not achieved by being good, but only by trusting our good and loving God.

Have you ever trusted Jesus to forever close the gap between you and God, releasing the heavy burden to be good enough, and found rest by drawing closer to God through grace rather than your own futile efforts?

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30