God: Just and Holy

The bible teaches us that God is a just and holy God. He can not look upon sin without acting justly towards that sin. What this means is that if we mess up even once, God has to condemn us to hell. It isn’t because he wants to,but because he has too. If he didn’t he wouldn’t be a just and holy God, instead he would just be a liar or somehow who gets kicks out of making humans suffer. Thankfully God is not like this.

He is a loving God who loves us, but must also punish sin.

This is where the tricky bit comes into play..

I’ll repay all my sin by doing good!

We might argue that if we do enough good that it would some how out weigh our sins and that we could (on our own) pay for them. This of course is ludicrous! Lets just look at it from judicial view (based on human standards). If you kill someone (or even steal for that matter) and you stand before the judge and he asks you “How do you plead?” You can’t respond with “Well, I gave X amount to charity this week, and did extra hours at the homeless shelter” or even “I stopped Global warming!” See, you good doesn’t somehow cancel out your wrongs.. If Mother Teresa went and killed just one person before she died, she would still be sentenced to jail even though she had saved 1000’s of lives prior.

It doesn’t get better, because Jesus says that even if you are angry at your brother it is as bad as murder

Matthew 5:21-22

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.”

So, if your good doesn’t out weigh your sin, what about not sinning at all?

The bible is very clear on this subject.

Romans 3:10-18 says :

10As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
12All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
13″Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14″Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15″Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16ruin and misery mark their ways,
17and the way of peace they do not know.”
18″There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

1 John 1 :8-10 says :

⁸If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

Though we can definitely rejoice in verse no 9 (because he is faithful and just), but vs 8 & 10 is definitely a warning to all those who think that judgment can’t touch them, or that sin does not exist.

I know! I’ll be very religious

You might find this quite a surprise, but God hates religion. He says we will be tossed out like filthy rags if we think religions can save us ( Isaiah 64:6 ). In Hebrews 10  God tells us that religion will not save us, but a relationship with Him through the blood of Jesus Christ will give us the relationship we have been searching for. We will be made clean before God, because Jesus who become a man, came and died for us, so that he may become the substitute of all those who believe in Him, giving us eternal life.

See, God doesn’t forgive sin until it is paid for, but the good news is that he has already paid for it.  There is nothing left for us to do but to accept him as God, and surrender to Him as Lord!

Then our sins will be paid for, and sin can not harm us anymore. (meaning we will share eternity with Him)

Though, just to clarify things a bit..

There is one kind of Religion that God does enjoy, and this is the Religion mentioned in James 1:27 : “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Now it isn’t saying that if you do these things you will somehow earn your way into heaven.. No, no.. What it is saying is that if you are going to put your efforts into trying to do the things that pleases God, then you should seek after these things.

Now of course this isn’t a complete list, but it does give us an idea of what we should be aiming for.

So I leave you with the same question I started with..

How are you paying for you sins?