Thought of the Day: Measure of Our Lives

Greetings in Christ Jesus, Fellow Soldiers.

How do you measure your righteousness? By the Ten Commandments? If you keep six of them, are you sixty percent righteous?

The reality is that we don't keep a single commandment--the law only kills, it doesn't bring life. Jesus made this point where he explained that anger in the heart is tantamount to murder and lust in the heart is tantamount to adultery (Matthew 5). He tightens the screws to let us know that our thoughts are just as liable to judgment as our deeds.

James (ch4) makes a similar point in that if we know the good we ought to do, but don't do it, it is sin. In other words, it is not just direct acts of sin (sin of commission) that condemn us, but any instances of not being perfectly good (sin of ommission).

The bottom line is that if we measure our lives by the law, we will surely be condemned. We need a Savior who will perfectly keep the law in our place, and will die for our guilt in accordance with the law. That is what we have in Jesus Christ, who measured our worth in His shed blood.