Week One Blog for the Rooted Bible Study. Learn more about Rooted here.
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our
bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22
Overachiever, goody-two-shoes, and teacher’s pet were a few of the labels I held while I was in school. I loved learning and I loved doing my best. I was also always the shy one who didn’t cause any problems. Apparently that isn’t the greatest mix of labels to enter into the “in” crowd. While I never made the “popular” crowd in high school, these labels carried with me through my life. It is kind of funny how labels given to us in life can unconsciously define who we are. I confess to you, up until recently I thought I was actually a good person. If I am being really honest with you, I think I felt like I didn’t need Jesus as much as I now know I need Him. I didn’t ever do the “bad” sins so I believed I could “handle” all the little things. I unintentionally tried to be the person I knew I should be by myself. For example, I knew I needed to be kinder to my husband and kids, so I set out to do that. When I failed, I beat myself up and sat down in guilt. I was fighting for perfection that I now know, I can never attain. I didn’t fully realize how far all of us fall from the righteous life God calls us to. Since I didn’t do the “big sins” I thought I could live a good life.
The truth is, none of us are good people. We are all so far away from meeting the high standards God calls us to it isn’t even funny. It can be easy to think we have control of all the small things like being kinder, not gossiping, telling the truth, and being patient. We don’t though. Biblical principles go against our natural reactions and tendencies. Let me tell you another story. I wasn’t feeling good one night. The kids were in bed and my husband was gone. I had just taken a shower and was laying in bed when I heard the door bell ring. I figured it was someone coming door to door selling things. No need to answer. I wasn’t dressed properly anyway. Pretty soon another knock and my husband’s phone dings. Still no motivation to see what’s going on. After a couple minutes his phone dings again. I decided to check it out and saw it was someone trying to pick up a loaner car Loren brought home for them. Apparently the keys weren’t in it. Now I had approximately 1 minute to find the keys, find some sort of appropriate clothing, and catch them before they gave up. I was flying around the house and made it outside before they pulled away. Trying to come up with a reason for the delay and not wanting to say I was too lazy to get up and check the door… I blurted out SORRY, I was in the shower!
Lie. I lied. Now I can’t stand lying. I would say I can claim honesty as a personal trait. However, this is a perfect example of the natural tendency we as humans have toward bad. We can all brush it off and justify it because I had a few reasons not answer the door right away. “Meh, it wasn’t really a lie”. Well according to God’s standard it was a lie. Bam, disqualified for Heaven because God is perfect and imperfection can’t enter Heaven. Does it sound radical? Maybe, but God’s perfect plan to justify us if even more radical.
We are all equally bad. It doesn’t matter if we have committed huge sins from a human perspective all the way to simply “kind of lying”. We are not good enough to be in God’s presence. Alone we will never be good enough. There is no one that is righteous (Romans 3:10). We ALL need Jesus to take away our sins and make us worthy to be in Heaven one day.
In the Old Testament we see God’s anger over and over again toward His people. We think “those silly people” they keep messing up. You would think they would learn…..
Just because we live in the New Testament doesn’t mean we are different than them. We have Jesus blood that washes away our sins, but we are not any better than them. We still are the same fallen human race that wandered in the desert for 40 years. It is crucial that we grasp the reality that we are never going to be good. When we can see our awfulness through this lens, we can see the incredible and RADICAL gift that God gave to us.
We didn’t deserve Jesus. We never did anything worthy of Him dying to take our sins. Yet He loved us so much He did it anyway. He knew even after He died we would still mess up–yet He did it anyway. He knew we would forget things and we would stumble, but He extended His love and life ANYWAY. God’s plan through Jesus not only washes away our sins and makes us right before Him, we have access to Him through His Word and Spirit that lives inside us. His plan is perfect in every way. Jesus came to save the world, not condemn it (John 3:17).
Because of Jesus, God can’t see our awful state. He looks down and sees us as righteous because He sees Jesus, not us. This incredible truth allows us to stop letting condemnation, failed expectations, and our awful state leave us in a turmoil. We can keep moving forward knowing that ALL of us are equally bad and ALL need Jesus in the same proportion. We can rise up out of guilt and condemnation because Jesus doesn’t condemn us. Jesus saves us. Each day we can draw nearer to Him because of our faith in what He has done. Our consciences can be sprinkled from evil and we can rest knowing Jesus is helping us live the life that is worthy of our calling.
Jesus blood shields us from God’s wrath. The Holy Spirit continues to sanctify us to draw us closer to Him and be used for Him more and more each day. In this incredible and simple truth we can find freedom. We can accept that we aren’t good, but are being sanctified and washed of our sins. We can freely move into a godly sorrow and repentance for when we do mess up instead of guilt and condemnation. We can rest knowing Jesus is making us into the person we want to be, even if we aren’t “changing” as fast as we want to. God’ plan is simple but incredibly powerful and awesome. We will never be good enough, but we are made worthy anyway. HOW AMAZING.
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