Friday June 16, 2017

 

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

Romans 3:23 NLT

 

 

From childhood to adulthood, no matter what our beliefs, the goal has always been fairness. Our instinctive argument as children whenever our parents asked us to do something was to say, “but it’s not fair”. Each time my mother would tell me, “son take out the trash”, I would always argue, “it’s not fair; I always have to take out the trash”. What is incredible is that the fairness argument would actually work every once in a while.

 

Whether individually, or in any number of ethnic, social, political, or religious groups, fairness has always been a prevalent and emotionally charged debate in our society. Children argue for fairness with other children, spouses argue for fairness in their relationships, workers, white people, black people, Latinos, Asians, straight, gay, and even religious people all have an argument for why they should be treated fairly.

 

The problem however is that once sin entered the world, fairness flew right out the window. Truthfully, we only seek fairness when the cause is close to our hearts; our primary concern when seeking fairness is personal benefit. In reality, if we were treated the same way we treat others, fairness would not be our friend. What makes fairness an even more complex issue is that at times, in order to treat a group or individual fairly, we need to be unfair to someone else. This is not an argument against fairness; there is a whole lot of good when seeking fairness. However, the bottom line here is that more than fairness, what we need is forgiveness.

 

Were you aware that in order for us to receive our free and glorious salvation, Jesus had to be treated unfairly? He was sentenced and condemned to death not for his sins; he was crucified for our sins and that is totally unfair. Speaking of the cross, Jesus was not crucified alone, to the left and to the right of him hung two criminals. These were two of the worst criminals of their generation. One began to curse at Jesus in the vilest way possible while the other admitted that he was guilty and sought to be treated with mercy by Jesus. Jesus said to him, today you will be with me in paradise”. Wait! That’s not fair! Yep, it’s not fair but aren’t you glad that Jesus did not come to the world to bring us fairness but rather forgiveness? Remember you may not be a criminal but you too are a sinner. Sinners more than anything else need to be forgiven. In case you missed today’s key Bible verse, here it goes again:

 

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

• Romans 3:23 NLT

 

 

Perhaps there have been times when you felt God was not fair to you. God may not have given you what you most wanted, but he came to offer you what you most need, forgiveness.