Throughout history, man has always had his own
standards and God his. Nothing exemplifies this like
the story of Cain
and Abel.
Cain was the first man born. As such he was unique
and a marvel. He was also the first male child on Earth.
And the mother said so: “I have had a male child with
the Lord’s
help.” Such sense of uniqueness can make one feel
entitled to self-created standards, to feel like an
exception to rules.
Such people can be temperamental and throw
tantrums when confronted with standards of behavior.
Cain in fact believed he would get away with murder,
literarily! He killed his own brother. Abel, his brother
was the first person to die physically - the first victim of
Eden Crisis. Cain and Abel made an offering to God.
Scriptures tell us Cain’s offering wasn’t acceptable to
God. Whereby Cain lost his temper, went into a sulk
and plotted his
brother’s murder. The issue of God’s approval has
therefore always been a concern to the human race.
But God said something interesting in the course of
this saga: Why this tantrum? Why this sulking? If you do
well, won’t you be accepted? If you don’t do well, sin is
lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it’s out to get
you, you’ve got
to master it.” The reason Cain sulked is because of
divergence of standards. God’s versus his. It’s the same
problem today. Man has a standard, God has his
standard. Man’s standard is morality - a binary
paradigm of good vs. evil. It’s man’s rating of how
things
ought to be judged. But God’s standard is COMPLETELY
different. It’s called righteousness. God does not judge
according to morality. If you don’t fulfill the terms of
righteousness you will not be acceptable to God. That’s
what the Bible says. No matter how good or how moral
you
are, or how much good you do, without righteousness
God won’t accept you. No standard is acceptable to
God except
God’s standard. This simple fact is very difficult for
some.
Like Cain. The standards of spiritual jurisprudence are
completely
different from the standards of our court system. We
view sin as civil liability. Not so to God. To him sin is a
criminal offence with capital liability. Sin is a capital
offence. When
Jesus took our place he died a criminal’s death. It’s
because we see sin as civil liability that we deign to
think we can subtract our bad from our good. In our
estimation, if our good is more than our bad then God
would accept us.
Yet this is not what scriptures say. The wages of sin is
death the Bible says. The soul that sinneth shall die. Sin
is a capital offence.
There is no big sin or small sin. Before God sin is sin.
According to the Law, if you’re guilty of one sin you’re
guilty of all. If we understand the nature of sin, no man
will dare imagine he can stand before God on the basis
of morality. WE see sin as something you do or fail to
do. We
define sin as a verb, in terms of action. But for God sin
is not just actus reus or action. It’s also men’s rea.
Jesus said there is thought crime. The man who lusts
after a woman to sleep with her has slept with her,
Jesus said. Guilty mind.
Man has a sinful NATURE. He inherited that nature
from Adam. Sinful nature is spiritually genetic. It’s why
the new man recreated in Christ has to change his
spiritual genes to
that of the Christ. Salvation is biology. Life for life.
That’s the essence of Jesus’ substitutionary sacrifice.
Jesus died
for us, died in our place. Without sinless innocent
blood we could never be redeemed.
Morality is not blood. It can’t answer for sin. When we
insist that our morality will save us, that is the spirit of
Cain. He set his own standard. The law says, Without
the
shedding of blood there is no amnesty, absolution,
remittal, pardon, forgiveness of sins. The blood of
Jesus cries on our
behalf before God, just like the blood of Abel cried
from the ground. Blood cries. The life of every animal
is in its blood. (Leviticus 17:14) As the Lamb of God the
life of Jesus was
in his blood. The man who hopes to acquit himself
before God by morality is following his own standard,
not God’s.
The very idea of seeking to stand before God on the
basis of morality is in itself a sin. It’s called self-
righteousness.
Self-righteousness is a sin of pride and really it’s
impudent.
Salvation is such an easy thing. But our fallen nature
makes us want to EARN God’s approval. How can you
earn a favour?! You knew nothing about Jesus going to
the cross. He did it looooooong before you were born.
How can
you earn what had been done and concluded 2,000
years after?! How can you earn salvation retroactively?
God says, just believe. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and you will be saved. It’s that simple! If you take God
at his word and
believe, you activate a sequence of events behind the
scenes. Your spirit is regenerated. Recreation takes
place.
It’s done so fast it’s imperceptible. At the speed of light!
That recreation by the Spirit of God is why Jesus said
you get born again. It’s a spiritual rebirth.
There are legal details God takes care of behind the
scene when you get born again. Your legal status
changes from that of a condemned criminal on death
row to that of a free man. Your records are wiped
clean. It doesn’t matter how terrible you were. The
blood of Jesus cleanses you. Then the Spirit of God
comes to dwell in you. It’s why born again people who
do crazy feel a sense of unease. You’re then
given high-level security clearance to God’s throne
room.
You can walk into state house anytime. Thereafter the
Spirit gives you gifts, just for accepting Jesus. He gives
you out-of-this-world capabilities. These gifts are totally
at his discretion but some are general, e.g.
speaking in tongues. To some he gives extra capacity to
believe God for the impossible. To some the ability to
be extraordinarily wise. To some he gives the ability to
“see” things. They seem clairvoyant. And some can
predict the
future.
You’re also assigned special assistants and
bodyguards.
Angels are assigned to you to “minister” to you. You
don’t see these angels but they’re all around you,
though some people have seen them. Angels are not
those Raphaelite
babies with chicken wings we see in paintings. These
guys are huge! Then your life is recalibrated. You
acquire a new sense of purpose. You see the futility of
life unlived for God.
And it gets better. Every time you make a mistake you
just tell God you’re sorry; and he forgives and forgets.
It’s so wonderful isn’t it? If you’ll like to give your life to
Jesus
please pray this prayer: “Father please forgive me. I am
a sinner. I know that Jesus died for me, that you raised
him from the dead. I accept him today as my Lord and
my
Saviour.
Amen!

@Leke_Alder
© Leke Alder 2014