Is Lance Armstrong guilty of taking performance enhancing drugs during his long and victorious cycling career? The US anti-doping agencies reckon he is, without any evidence, while he has decided to stop the battle to protest his innocence.
And what about Anders Breivik? Is he guilty or mad?
And is the Sun newspaper guilty of breaching the Press standards guidelines, by publishing the Prince Harry pictures?
And is Prince Harry guilty of folly or worse?
And is Prince Harry guilty of folly or worse?
And so we could go on!
Of what are we guilty?
The Bible is clear that we are all in the same boat, when we look at the human condition. There may be degrees of behaviour - good and bad - but at heart, we have all fallen short of God's perfect standards, revealed so wonderfully in the life of Jesus.
At the end of nearly three chapters of closely argued evidence, St. Paul makes a bold statement. ' For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.' (Romans 3.23)
But he then goes on to demonstrate that in sending Jesus, God has provided the perfect rescue that we all need. ' Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.' (Romans 3.24-25a)
So today, instead of pointing the finger at others, whose guilt may be more obvious than my own, I shall thank the Lord for his love and mercy. In the light of such accepting and welcoming love, I shall reapply the medicine of the Gospel, and seek to live as a new person, as St. Paul encourages us all to do. 'And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.' (Romans 12.1) That would be wonderful!
Best wishes,
Richard
No comments:
Post a Comment