Faith Tidbit #36

The second function of the Ten Commandments, God's law, is to be a mirror, showing us ourselves as we are. We touched on this briefly several days ago. "Through the law comes the knowledge of sin," the Bible says. When we come to terms with God's commands for things like absolute loyalty to Him, honor for our parents, respecting the lives, properties, and reputations of others, sexuality expressed only in marriage between a man and a woman, and so on, we see our distance from God and from the life only God can give. We see that we are sinners and sinners can have no place in eternity. This realization will either drive us to despair or it will lead us to seek forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus Christ. Knowing that we can't trust ourselves, we're called to take the leap of faith and entrust ourselves to Christ. The Bible explains it this way:

God treats everyone alike. He accepts people only because they have faith in Jesus Christ. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins. (Romans 3:21-24, Contemporary English Version)