Best of Both Worlds

 

Read Proverbs 2

We are a people who are thankful for mercy and grace and living in the favor of God for we can say in the first person, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

We love atonement.  We celebrate the sacrifice of the Unblemished Lamb that we know to be Christ Jesus.  We enjoy being made right with God by the blood of Jesus.

Why?  Because God did what we could not do.  We sinned.  He sacrificed.  We are forgiven.

But what if we could live without sin?  What if we could be blameless?

Then there is a promise. 

He holds success in store for the upright,

    he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,

 for he guards the course of the just

    and protects the way of his faithful ones.

If you could totally resist your sinful nature, then God offers you success.  He is your protector.  Things would be looking good for you.

But we all fall short at some point.  We are thankful that it is not game over at that point.  He is faithful and just to forgive.  He restores us and puts us back in our race of faith and once again we get a shot at living blamelessly.

And we trip and fall and sin again, but it is not game over.  God’s promises are always true.  We fail.  He is faithful.  We enjoy mercy—forgiveness where we didn’t deserve it.  We enjoy grace—blessings and favor where we don’t deserve it.

We enjoy these things because of the blood of Jesus, but God’s promises did not pass away.  There is still benefit from living God’s way. 

It might be profit in this world.  It might be protection from evildoers.  It might just be peace that we are seeking God and his kingdom and his righteousness and his wisdom above all else.

It might just be the assurance that we are doing the best that we can to please God.

It seems that we have the best of both worlds.  There is promise for living God’s way and forgiveness when we miss the mark and genuinely confess.

It might always seem like a struggle to live God’s way, but we must grow an appetite for his way and his wisdom, for there will be a sorting in God’s time.

Thus you will walk in the ways of the good

    and keep to the paths of the righteous.

 For the upright will live in the land,

    and the blameless will remain in it;

 but the wicked will be cut off from the land,

    and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

There is no promise that there will be no troubles or trials.  In fact, we know that both will come our way.  What we are promised is that staying the course is worth it, even if we must confess time and time again because we have missed the mark.

We should always seek to be blameless before the Lord.

We seek God, his ways, his wisdom, his kingdom, and his righteousness.  Those constitute our goals.  We may have a few errant tries along the way but the target remains the same and God’s promises are always true and forever.

Amen.