Today is Good Friday for Christians. As I think of what God the Father went through in watching His only begotten son suffer and die because of our sin I wonder how He feels about certain approaches to salvation. To the person who says, "I'm pretty good, God will have to let me in." Its almost like they are telling God that he overreacted in sending Jesus to die for our sin. I wonder if God might say something like the following to that person. "If you were able to be good enough to get into heaven, why did Jesus have to die? By the way, how good is good enough? You don't set the standard for what is 'good enough', I do and there is only one person that ever has been or ever will be 'good enough' and that is Jesus. You have a choice to make. You can try to enter heaven on your own merit, in which case you will be denied, or enter on the merits of what Jesus has done, in which case I will welcome you in."
Another approach might say this, "I'm covered by grace, and I can do whatever I want cuz God loves me and will always forgive me." I wonder if God might respond this way, "Do you understand the pain my son suffered because of this sin you so freely commit. Do you realize that I turned my back on my own son because of this sin which doesn't seem to bother you but bothered me enough to have to let my son be put on a cross to die as satisfactory punishment so that I don't have to punish you for this sin? If you really knew me and how much I love you, you wouldn't be able commit this sin so easily."
All too often I hear one or the other of these two rather cavalier approaches to sin and salvation. Both of these make light of what happened on the cross that day. Today is a day to reflect on what our lives say about either our desperate dependence on, or our flippant marginalization and disregard for, what Jesus did in our place that day.
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