Friday; December 1
When we envision the final judgement,
what comes to mind? For some, it might
be the image of a an old-fashioned scale.
On one side is all the sins we have committed and, on the other side, we
have all the good that we have done. In
the end, we hope that the good outweighs the bad (and maybe – if we find
ourselves lacking – we hope that God will place His thumb on the good side of
the scale to tip the balance in our favor).
Unfortunately, this imagery is contrary to the basic principles of
theology because any amount of sin – no matter how minute – will outweigh all
of the good we can ever do. So, in view
of a seemingly hopeless situation, where do we turn? The answer is found in the vision of Jesus
hanging on the cross. This image is the
profound answer to our sin problem. On
our own, we cannot balance the scales through a lifetime of effort, but He was
willing to solve the problem by spending three days in a grave. The Bible explains it this way, “But God, being rich in merc…