17 October 2013 - off the deep end

17 October 2013 - off the deep end

For there is no distinction;
all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.

This is a foundational principle of the Christian faith.  Our first parents sin and all generations after are separated from God.  We are deprived of the glory of God.  We need to realize that this is a true deprivation.  We are meant to experience this glory.  We are meant to live in it.  But without the intervention of God, without grace, we have no access to it.  This is true of the entire human race, even the Jews to whom God is so close.  This is true in spite of efforts on our part to rebuild the bridge with good works.

We stand in continuity with a broken human race.  We "bear witness and give consent to the" the killing our the prophets by our fathers.  The memorials we build may look good from the outside but we ourselves have the same sin and weakness within.  That is why Jesus can charge one generation

with the blood of all the prophets
shed since the foundation of the world,
from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah
who died between the altar and the temple building.

He can justly charge us as well.  We are the tenants of the vineyard who kill all of the messengers of the landowner and eventually kill the son (cf. Mat. 21:37-41).  And this is hard for "nice" people like us.  We think that everyone is basically "OK."  We just need to try a little harder and be a little nicer.  It is hard to acknowledge the depths of our fallen state especially since we aren't walking around literally killing anyone.  But Jesus tells us that we who look at another with lust are, in a sense, guilty of adultery.  He tells us that we who speak in unjust anger are, in a sense, guilty of murder (cf. Mat. 5:21-30).  The same impulses and motivations drive us which drive those who kill the prophets.  These same impulses crucify the LORD Jesus.  Even from these depths let us cry out:

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;

Crying out to him, we experience God's saving power.

With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
His mercy comes as a free gift given solely because of his love for us, solely because of his goodness.

They are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption in Christ Jesus,
whom God set forth as an expiation,
through faith, by his Blood, to prove his righteousness
because of the forgiveness of sins previously committed,
through the forbearance of God–
to prove his righteousness in the present time,
Because of this, because it isn't about our efforts or our worthiness, the trust we should have in the LORD is profound.

I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
My soul waits for the LORD
more than sentinels wait for the dawn.