Good Morning Friends,
“There is not a righteous man on earth who
does what is right and never sins.” (Ecclesiastes 7:20)
I had a woman come to my office some time
back. She was surprised that she could see sin in the life of a staff member at
the church she attended. She thought the qualifications for church staff
members disqualified those who were sinful. If that was true, there would be no
preachers, no youth ministers, no children’s ministers, no church staff people
of any kind. The only pool of people on earth that God has to choose from to do
His work are human beings.
Solomon had discovered … every human being
sins. There is not a single human being alive, who ever has been alive, or who
ever will be alive (Jesus excepted) who has fulfilled all of the requirements
of righteousness and had no sin. All of us give in to some of the temptations
set before us. All of us have areas of our lives that are not yet controlled by
God's Spirit.
Adam gave in to the desire to be independent
of God. Noah gave in to drunkenness. Abraham lied out of fear, because of
weakness in his faith. Moses allowed his pride to cause him to act in ways that
brought the attention on himself, rather than keeping it on God. David
committed adultery and conspired to commit murder. In every other human being
that God has used you can find weakness and sin.
It’s not that they are hypocrites, it is that
they are human and have not yet been conformed to the image of God. For those
who come to Jesus Christ by faith, conforming to the image of God is coming --
but its fullness must wait for eternity. Although we’ll see progress toward righteousness,
it won’t fully happen until heaven.
That doesn’t mean we should be satisfied with
our sin. It does mean that we can’t expect to see perfection in anyone around
us, no matter how long they've been in the Lord, how mature they are, or how
the Lord is using them.
There is some good news. From the biography
of Abraham we learn, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as
righteousness.” (Romans 4:3) From Abraham forward, all who come to God through
faith are credited with righteousness. We haven’t earned it and don’t deserve
it, but by the grace of God He see us as righteous through Jesus.
That’s a marvelous gift for those of us who
continue to struggle with sin!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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