How Good Are You?

Job 34:10-15, ‘So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong. He repays a man for what he has done; He brings upon him what his conduct deserves. It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice. Who appointed Him over the earth? Who put Him in charge of the whole world? If it were His intention and He withdrew His spirit and breath, all mankind would perish together and man would return to dust.’ God is a holy God and His standard for holiness is not like man’s. All men have fallen short of the glory of God and we stand condemned by our rebelliousness and disobedient nature that leads us to sin. By the sin of Adam, all men are born spiritually dead, ruled by their rebelliousness and disobedient nature that is self seeking, incapable of loving any other than self. God hates sin, and any sinful man that comes to His holy presence will die. But by His grace through Jesus Christ we are born again in spirit in His likeness and can now have the confidence to approach His throne because as believers, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and when He looks at us, He does not see the wretched sinners that we are but the righteous and obedient Christ that died for us and now lives in us. We are to reap what we sow, that is the holy justice of God, but through His love and mercy, we have found redemption and rebirth in Christ Jesus, so that we do not get what we deserve, getting life, righteousness and mercy instead of death and condemnation that we deserve. Since God is just, He cannot punish the same sin twice and all sins of the world – past, present and future – were heaped on and punished in Christ at the cross and that is why at the cross Jesus Christ yelled, it is finished!, to signify the totality and finality of the judgment of our sins. But in our attempt to understand holiness and justice, we look at it from the point of man and falsely impute evil on God. He is the Holy of holies, the Truth, the Light and the Life, without Him we are nothing and through and in Him we are everything He wants us to be. It is only when we allow Jesus Christ into our lives, surrender our will to His and live for Him, can we live a life pleasing to God, a righteous and obedient life. Only then can His righteousness shine through us and to the world. For those that refuse to accept the salvation that God is offering, He is just and will accept your choice to stand for yourself during judgment day and will judge you according to your action. So how do you stack up?