October 27 -- "Who Could Stand?"

 Today’s Reading: Psalms 128, 129, & 130

"Who Could Stand?"

If God kept records of our wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? Who would ever survive? Think about that. What if God wrote down every time you had an evil thought, or a selfish motive, or hurtful words, or broke His commandments. How would your list look? If He were to call you into His judgment hall and ask you to defend yourself, would you succeed? Who would? Not a single one of us. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s standards. We all have a “rap sheet” that is miles long, with indictment after indictment. No mortal could stand justified in the sight of God.

To truly appreciate God’s grace and forgiveness, it is vital that we all have a sense of our own sinfulness. We must grasp the truth of our own guilt and the depth of our own depravity. We must understand that if God decided to charge us with iniquity, that we are guilty as charged. If He should judge us as we are - we would have no hope. If you don’t understand the problem of your own sin, then you don’t understand God’s grace and forgiveness.  If you’re still entertaining the delusion that you are a “pretty good person” or that you’re “not as bad as the next guy,” then you’ve missed the whole point of God’s salvation. God doesn’t save us because we’re “pretty good” or because “we gave it a great big try.” God saves us even though everyone of us is undeserving of His salvation.

Which brings us to the awesome truth that God doesn’t save us because of some goodness within us, He saves us solely based upon the GOODNESS THAT IS WITHIN HIMSELF. If the Lord should mark our iniquities, none of us would stand. But listen to the rest of today’s verse – “With You there is forgiveness that You may be feared.” What an amazing and astonishing truth! There is forgiveness with God! The most holy and pure Creator can and does take depraved sinners and forgives them for their sin and transgressions. We are justified in His sight because of His great act of forgiveness.

Jesus went to the cross and died in our place to take the punishment for our sins. Because of this, and ONLY because of this, God offers us forgiveness, and cleansing, and salvation, and eternal life. He takes the vilest sinner and blots out the record of his/her wrongdoing based solely on his/her faith in the work of Christ on the cross. Jesus took your “rap sheet” and your punishment upon Himself.

Realizing that we are forgiven, as grateful worshippers we are now ready to enter God’s temple in holy worship. The importance of the occasion fills us with such a sense of awe that we are genuinely humbled before God. We confess that we cannot understand all about God and his ways, though at the same time we rest in the knowledge that “with You there is forgiveness.” Because the Lord no longer keeps an account of our iniquities, we can stand!