Events in Doncaster this week have shocked the nation, how can two pre-teen boys have acted in such a way. To attack, rob, beat and stab two boys for a poultry sum of money. It has prompted various responses but one has been to ask what made them do it? Is it a result of societies failings or the parents or are these boys just evil?
Behind it all is this question; what is right and what is wrong and who decides? I want to just explore that idea this morning.
Imagine morality as being on a scale like a ladder. At the top is God because he is perfect. I guess you’d put Mother Teresa somewhere near the top, maybe a couple of rungs down. And at the bottom you’d have serials killers and the like. I wonder where you’d put yourself? Where is the cut off point on that scale for heaven? How do you bridge the gap?
The film Seven Pounds explores just such an idea and I’m afraid I’m going to spoil it for you. The films is all about redemption. Tim (Will Smiths character) was involved in a car crash that he caused by using his mobile phone whilst driving, as a result 6 strangers and his fiancée were killed. Where would you put him on the morality ladder?
In the film you see him desperately trying to redeem his mistake. First he gives a lung lobe to his brother, then he donates part of his liver, a kidney and his bone marrow. Then he gives his house to an abused woman and her children so they can escape her abuser. Where would you put him now?
Finally he kills himself but in a way that preserves his heart and eyes so they can be donated, and in the process he saves Emily’s life. The big question have his 7 acts of kindness redeemed him? Has it been enough? Where would you put him now on the morality ladder?
It’s an interesting question what does it take to earn redemption?
The Bible is also concerned with that same idea of redemption. It tells us that the standard is not Mother Teresa, its not Ben Thomas, it’s not me, the gospels show us it is Jesus – and the standard is perfection.
But the amazing thing about Easter is that Jesus the innocent dies a guilty man, not before the Roman courts who declare him innocent, but before God. On the cross Jesus is accused, tried and convicted by God of sin and he experiences judgement for it.
The big question at Easter is why does Jesus die like that? The answer is given by Peter who write: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. He dies to provide redemption, not for himself but for us. Jesus dies on the cross to close the morality gap between us and God once and for all. He dies cut off from God so we can be credited with his perfect standing with God if we will trust in him. And it doesn’t matter where you start from on the morality ladder, his death can bring us to God.
In the film Tim will only give his gifts to good people, people who deserve it. But God loved us so much that from eternity he planned and Jesus was willing to die for us to close the morality gap. That verse tells us it was not for those who deserved it but those who didn’t – to bring the unrighteous to God.
Can I ask you this morning what is your plan to close the morality gap? And there is a gap whether you are a good nice person like Peter was, or whether you have lead the worst most chequered life because the standard is perfection. Imagine for a minute that on a memory stick I have a video of your life this week, when I plug it in we would all sit and watch it, but it isn’t just your actions but your thoughts and desires too. Where would we put you on the morality ladder?
The only way that works is by trusting in Jesus death for you. It is what makes Christianity unique, it doesn’t call you to do loads of things to earn salvation but to trust in the one who has done it for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment