Hover over Romans 1:20-22 for proof of God's existence, and over Matthew 5:27-28 for Judgment Day’s perfect standard. Then hover over John 3:16-18 for what God did, and over Acts 17:30-31 for what to do.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Back to the Good Doctor...

13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

The multitudes of heavenly hosts praised God because an utterly unique child had been born. This baby was different from every other human being, because His mother was a virgin. He didn’t come through the sinful Adamic race. Jesus of Nazareth was without sin. He was not plagued with selfishness, unclean thoughts, anger, greed, pride, self-righteousness and all the other sins that fill the human heart.

The image of Tiger Woods had been portrayed for years as one of squeaky clean wholesomeness. It was a media image. Clean sells. But it wasn’t real. He proved to be just like the rest of us--a fallible human being, with a number of pretty ugly skeletons in his closet.

There is no such thing as a morally clean human being. If you disagree, name one person (other than yourself) who is morally perfect. All of us are tainted with sin, and the Day will come when every closet door will be opened by God to expose every ugly and dirty skeleton. If you don't believe it will happen, it doesn’t matter. It will happen anyway. There will be a Day of Judgment.

Unless you are made morally perfect by the grace of God (He forgives every sin upon repentance and faith in Jesus), you will be found guilty on the Day of Judgment and end up in a terrible place called Hell. I would hate that to happen to you.

Again, this baby was different from the rest of us. He was perfect from the moment He was born, because He was born to be the sacrifice for the sin of the world. If that doesn’t make sense, perhaps this illustration will help.

If you were a guilty criminal who had a fine that you couldn’t pay, I could pay your fine, but it must be with untainted money. I couldn’t give the judge a bankroll from a drug deal. In the same way, the One who paid our fine on the cross had to be without sin, for His sacrifice to be acceptable in the sight of a morally perfect Judge.

The birth of the Messiah meant that God Himself had provided the sacrifice. That meant immortality was going to be made accessible to dying humanity, and that's why the heavenly hosts were praising God.