Thou Shalt Not

Thou shalt not                                            .  Exodus 20:        .

^{There are 10 of these…take your pick}

Years ago when my children were young teens, one of them asked me as we drove past another abortion clinic, are the doctors that perform abortions going to Hell for that?

While the answer is not as simple as “yes” or “no”, it highlights what is in the mind of most people: 

Which sin is bad enough to send me to hell?

How good do I have to be to get to Heaven?

In case you’re wondering, the answer I gave to my children is that they were asking the wrong question.  It’s not a matter of how good you need to be to escape Hell and make it to the safety of Heaven; the question is, how good did Jesus have to be for me to make it to Heaven?

Scripture informs us that you only have to break one of the “thou shalt nots” to be a sinner; we are all guilty at that point.  (Those who think not have already broken that one about lying, and there is something in there about self-righteous pride!).

Scripture also informs us that all the good stuff you do cannot blot out a single “sin-stain” from our record; not even Mother Teresa gets a pass on that one.  It is only the blood of Christ that cleanses us from our sin ^{(1 John 1:9)}.

So, the issue is then (to paraphrase President Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural speech):

Ask NOT which THOU SHALT NOT  I must keep;Ask Christ to forgive what I have broken and cannot fix about me.

Today

If you’re like me, when you realize you’ve offended a friend, co-worker, or anyone else in your life, the sunrise cannot come too early on asking forgiveness.

It works that way with your God.  

Ask and thou shalt receive forgiveness!