If lawyers were going through your life and looking at every detail to try to convict you of wrongdoing, could they?
The pastor brought that up on Sunday.
If people looked through your e-mails, texts, the websites you've visited, your school disciplinary records, the voicemails you've left...
It makes you start to feel a little uncomfortable thinking about it, doesn't it?
Even if you've led a "good" life, there are still moments you aren't proud of.
People don't see a need for God because they've led good lives. You've never murdered or cheated, right? But did you steal an orange gummy slice at the grocery store as a kid? Then you've broken the law. You've even broken one of the 10 commandments. Have you ever come to work five minutes late? That's called time theft. Have you ever told a white lie to get out of something you didn't want to do? Have you kept extra change a cashier accidentally gave you?
We've all done something wrong. No one is perfect.
Most little things, we won't see consequences fo. Even big sin doesn't always have tangible consequences. Sometimes murderers walk when there's not enough evidence. Sometimes the bully doesn't get punished. Sometimes the tax evader doesn't get caught.
However, we will all still have to own up for what we've done eventually.
"They will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead," 1 Peter 4:5.
The judgement we face will affect us for more than having a tax fine or even life in prison. This judgement affects us for eternity.
God will look at your life and will judge you. Those who aren't be perfect will be punished, fairly.
God is too perfect. He can't be around sin. Any sinful person will be sent to eternal torment.
Well, that's depressing. We're all out of luck, huh, since none of us is perfect? I've never heard anyone claim to be anyway. So there's no hope?
Not exactly.
Jesus was perfect. He was God who came as a man. He lived a perfect life but died as a sacrifice, like a lamb offered as a blood offering. His blood is put on those who accept him as Savior.
When God look at people who have accepted his son, he doesn't see sin. He sees perfection, his own son's perfection.
It's only through Jesus that we can spend eternity out of torment, in perfect relationship with God.
I am not perfect, not even close. I snip at my husband. I am prideful. I gossip.
But thanks to Jesus, God sees me as perfect.
I'm so thankful for that.
