I'm thinking today of a short passage in James
chapter 2. It begins with verse 9. It says, but
if you show partiality, that means if you look
like toward the rich people and you treat them
well, or you treat only those people who treat
you well, well, that kind of thing. It says,
if you show partiality like that, you are committing
sin and you are convicted by the law as transgressors
for or because whoever keeps the whole law and
yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty
of all. For he who said, do not commit adultery,
also said, do not commit murder. Now, if you
do not commit adultery, but do commit murder,
you have become a transgressor of the law. So
speak and so act as those who are to be judged
by the law of liberty. So this is the point.
God has given us many instructions. They are
the way that we will best honor him. They are
the way that we will live our best life. He came
and died that we might have life and have it
more abundantly. And following the directions
of our God, he is Lord, is the way to get there.
But if you break one point, you would then be
guilty of all of it. So if you showed partiality
towards someone, if you lusted after someone,
if you murdered someone, someone or showed anger
or had anger in your heart toward a brother that's
the same as murder those things then you would
be guilty of all of it So you need a Savior.
No one's perfect, and no one's going to get it
right at all during this lifetime, but you need
Jesus, and Jesus is Lord, and that means he tells
us what to do, and we do it, and he's Savior.
That means he paid the price for our sins, and
that overcomes our judgment as transgressors,
and we are justified. We live now just as if
we had never sinned, and we try to live the best
we know how and follow the directions because
we don't want to be transgressors, but at the
same time, we realize that it's in Jesus that
we're saved.