Everlasting Place
  • Home
  • One way
    • Proof
  • Sadie Sparrow
    • Sadie Sparrow Excerpt
    • Author Chat
    • Articles
    • Book Reviews
  • Memoir
    • Memoir Excerpts
    • Reviews, interviews & endorsements
  • Blogs
    • Eternal eyes: a blog about forever
    • Golden years: a blog about the elderly
  • Old folks
    • Planting tips for Christians
  • Messages from Chris Carrillo
  • Library
  • Bookstore
  • Contact

The law's like an MRI for the soul

2/21/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture
These days, a lot of people seem to think that getting into heaven requires being a good person – being nice to others, avoiding theft, murder, adultery, and greed, and maybe putting a lid on bad language. To this list, religious folk might add tasks like going to church, participating in certain sacraments, confessing their sins, and following any instructions their gurus might have for erasing those sins.
 
In other words, to these people, the price of admission to heaven is following certain laws. Not perfectly, of course; they figure that as long as you do so as well as the next person, you’ll be fine. And what did Jesus mean, in Matthew 5:49, when He said we must be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect? Ah, he was probably just joking. Either that, or He was misquoted.  
 
The trouble is, this line of thinking gets us nowhere, because its opening premise is wrong. God didn’t give us the law so that we’d obey it. He knew we wouldn’t be able to.
 
So then why did He give us the law?
 
Pastor Ken Keltner explained it well in a February, 2018 sermon delivered to Brookside Baptist Church in Brookfield, Wis. The law is like an MRI, Pastor Ken said, a diagnostic imaging tool that’s capable of exposing diseases like cancer before symptoms even appear. But instead of revealing physical disease, God’s law exposes our sin–the spiritual disease that, left untreated, is inevitably and eternally fatal.
 
This is just what the apostle Paul was implying when he wrote, in Romans 7:7, “I would not have known sin except through the law.”
 
Fortunately, no costly and time-consuming tests are required for this diagnosis. We just need to examine our lives in the light of God's law, summed up perfectly in the Ten Commandments.
 
The first Commandment alone should be enough to make the problem clear: Have you ever worshipped gods other than the God of the Bible? Family or work, for example?Politics or material possessions? Personal popularity or intellectual prowess? Have you in fact spent every waking moment of your life thinking about and loving no one but God?   
 
Feel free to examine your life in light of the other nine Commandments (see Exodus 20). But it’s probably not necessary; this first one’s enough for an accurate diagnosis. Which is that you’re a sinner, just like the rest of us. And if you don’t treat it, you’re headed for eternal death.
 
Sadly, unbelievers are prone to denying the results of this test. They insist that they are not sinners, that the test is inaccurate or the disease nonexistent, that their gods don’t use such archaic standards.  Which is tragic, because unless they allow the law to reveal the disease of sin in their souls, they will never escape their death sentence.
 
But there’s good news for those who are willing to accept the diagnosis: There is a cure for sin, a cure that’s 100% safe, effective, and permanent:  it’s the blood of Jesus Christ, who atoned for the sin of the world upon the cross almost 2000 years ago. 
 
How do we get this cure?
 
Not by denying the disease. Not by trying to cure it ourselves through good works and sacraments. And certainly not by trying to keep the law that was given to us only to make the diagnosis clear.  
 
We get this cure instead by repenting of our sin and trusting in Jesus to have paid its penalty, in full, on the cross. When we do this, He cleanses us completely and clothes us in His righteousness.
 
And that's how we achieve the perfection that Jesus talked about in Matthew 5--the perfection that takes us through the narrow gate to eternal life.  
 
If you haven’t yet done so, consider examining your life in light of God’s law, and then taking the cure. It’s free!
 
If you have already done so, give this diagnostic-imaging analogy some thought. It just might come in handy the next time you’re witnessing to someone who’s trusting in his or her goodness to achieve a heavenly forever after.  
2 Comments
Jeanne
2/21/2018 05:59:14 pm

Just think the analogy is superb. Hope I can use it sometime.

Reply
Kitty Foth-Regner link
2/22/2018 05:54:23 am

I agree, Jeanne -- something clicked for me when I heard it (although it's certainly just what scripture teaches, isn't it?). And when I presented it to a group of lifelong "law abiders" earlier this week, I saw the light go on for several of them.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Kitty
    Foth-Regner

    I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, a freelance copywriter, a nursing-home volunteer, and the author of books both in-process and published -- including Heaven Without Her. 

    Archives

    May 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    Care to subscribe?

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from tracie7779, Luci Correia, Maxwell Hamilton, giardinaggio, Doug1021, Angel Xavier Viera, Damian Gadal, Reboots, leoncillo sabino, mRio, HikingArtist.com, guymoll, csath07, Guudmorning!, fred_v, homegets.com, ishaip, jinxmcc, freeparking :-|, CallMeWhatEver, BryonLippincott, simpleinsomnia, csread, nicephore, Doug Beckers, mandydale, berniedup, tontantravel, h.koppdelaney, Jill Clardy, anieto2k, NASA Goddard Photo and Video, QuidoX, Ryo | [ addme. ], ShebleyCL, TinyTall, proggy-yahoo, Infiniteyes, Genista, kippster, Speculum Mundi, HerPhotographer, Tauralbus, megallypuff, harshxpatel, Waiting For The Word, CoreBurn, Gordon Chirgwin, {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}, John McLinden, Patrick Feller, jikatu, Peter O'Connor aka anemoneprojectors, byzantiumbooks, bizmac, H o l l y., Peter Blanchard, sheriffmitchell, Tony Webster, hectorir, City of Overland Park, luis_cunha, Sam Howzit, bertknot, QuotesEverlasting, iturde, ejmc, VARNISHdesign, Cimm, Good Book Reader, Renaud Camus, banjipark, romana klee, 00alexx, erix!, branestawm2002, amsfrank, m01229, cbcmemberphotos2477, rhode.nel, Veronique Debord, joshjanssen, zenjazzygeek, h.koppdelaney, Laurel Mill Players, quinn.anya, *ErinBrierley*, Ben Pugh, Photographing Travis, BarnImages.com, anees.waqas, swambo, Alan Miles NYC, glenngould, Patrick Feller, davecito, wade in da water, Endre Majoros, France1978, dainamara, theseanster93, insightpest, eliduke, volker-kannacher, cogdogblog, Editor B, poshdee, brewbooks, J D Mack, ThomasKohler, mayeesherr. (in West Bengal!), TEDxHouston, Ms. Phoenix, PBoGS, Eselsmann™, Inside Guide To London, ShironekoEuro, Tom Anderson, flequi, cogdogblog, njaminjami, Search Engine People Blog, ShanMcG213, Julie Edgley, randihausken, pescatello, Waiting For The Word, moriza, Iain Farrell, Arizona Parrot, digitalmindphotography, enjosmith, www.WeisserPhotography.com, STC4blues, Holidayextras, Randy Roe, goprogresswent, BenDibble, kstoyer, Rennett Stowe, williac, ImNotQuiteJack, Life Mental Health, Jose Antonio Cotallo Lopez, gruntzooki, electricinca, adactio, miheco, Zemlinki!, bnilsen, chispita_666