I was once visiting with a friend who was struggling to find peace of mind. I wasn’t that sure of what all was contributing to his unrest, but as it turns out he was convinced that God only loves those who walk in sinless perfection. All the rest, he believed, God hates. Added to that was his assertion that he had no sin in his life. But, frankly, it seemed to me that that explained much of his inner turbulence.
I just don’t see how any honest soul could ever see himself as anything but a sinner in constant need of mercy and forgiveness. As I see it, to lay claim to some sort of sinless state requires either lowering the bar as to just what constitutes sin or choosing to ignore the obvious fact that in this life we will have hardly even gotten started to become what God calls us to be.
Consider this: who of us comes even remotely close to treating others according to the infinite value God places upon them? We are so many light years off the rails from this that any thought to the contrary is laughable. If angels laugh among themselves — and I’m sure they do — then surely they must have some outbursts of laughter whenever they hear a Christian say that he’s doing a good job at obeying God.
Better by far is to take our eyes off of ourselves altogether, as much as possible, and keep them on Jesus and trust him to constantly make up the difference on our pathetic attempts at righteousness. He’ll gladly do so. That’s the sort of redemptive intervention he delights to give.
