No Justification Required
We humans have a natural tendency to blame, and I've often said that our default position of defensiveness, which always includes blame, is one of the most problematic things about being human. It is my opinion that the first sin was disobediance to God; the second sin was defending that disobediance by deflecting and blaming, and this has been part of our inherited Adam DNA ever since.
When God confronted Adam about his disobediance, the response He got back was "The women whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate". Adam blamed God first and then he blamed his wife.
The immediate need that this sin "triggered" was a need for justification and from that moment on God's plan to atone and justify man from his sin was put into place. (Actually the word says that even before the foundation of the world, this plan was in place, but that's just way to vast a truth for me to even attempt to understand!) Suffice it to say, Jesus Christ was to provide us with our ultimate justification and we rest in that when we trust Him and His finished work for us at the Cross.
So why then are we still constantly trying to justify ourselves, not only in our striving to measure up with God, but more so in our day to day little and big failings; our commissions and omissions of sin; our acts and our failures to act? Here is what I mean....
When I fail and or sin, I find myself justifying my failure or sin, and that justification can go so far as to totally deceive me. Let's say I know to do something and I don't do it ( sin by omission)...the moment I make the choice not to do it, I start giving myself good reasons as to why; it's inevitable. If I don't give myself good reasons as to why I did not do what I knew to do, the feelings of guilt or shame would override me; I don't like feeling guilt or shame, so I alleviate those feelings by giving myself the excuse...the justification...and the deception that sets in, works well to help me actually believe it!
If we sin against another typical justification works like this...... first, we remind ourselves of all the times that person sinned against us; we then put an interpretation about why they sinned against us and it usually has to do with what a bad person they are, ie: he's a jerk, she's a beeeotch; he's lazy, good for nothing and inconsiderate; she's manipulative, cold and lacks understanding; he's uncaring and indifferent; she's critical and difficult to please. On and on it goes. When we are in "justification required to make myself feel better" mode, we inevitably knock the other person down, while we build ourselves up. They're bad; I'm good; they are the dastardly villian while I'm the innocent victim; they have an entrenched sin problem while I only have issues. We buy into these beliefs so much because thinking like this allows us to then justify ourselves, and feel better about our behavior. The trouble is, I wonder...if we only ever justify ourselves and never actually own our behavior so we can repent of our sins and failings, can we deceive ourselves so badly that we risk it all? How can we trust in our Lord's atonement and rest in the justification He provides us, if we don't believe we need it?
I wonder at the ramifications of the self deception we enter into when we believe our own justifications?
In Matthew 25 Jesus talks about His coming again and particularly, where He separates the sheep from the goats. When pondering our tendency to justify our positions and sins, I read this last week and it got me thinking...
Then the King will say to those on His right hand, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer Him saying, "Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and cloth You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison and come to You?
....then Jesus said to those on His left hand, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devel and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me. Then they also will answer Him, saying "Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?"
I find it interesting that the sheep had no idea of the impact they were making by simply going about doing what they knew in their hearts to do. They had to ask, "when did we do these things"? And this makes me think that they were humble in their doing, and if they failed in that doing, their humility enabled them to own the failing with no excuses - no justification required because they trusted in His provision for it - and so they could simply repent and carry on.
I find it equally interesting that the goats had no idea that they had no impact. Their question was not "when did we do these things" - no, their question was "when didn't we do them?" Were they so deceived by their justifications that they believed themselves far better than they were? Had they borne false witness of their own false virtue, truly believing that they were "good" because of their own justifications?
When we play the justification game, we risk the kind of self deception that renders us harmful in our relationships; we are first harming ourselves, then those we love, and far worse than any of that, we are harming our relationship with our Savior. He has provided all the justification we will ever need, so your own is not required.
When God confronted Adam about his disobediance, the response He got back was "The women whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate". Adam blamed God first and then he blamed his wife.
The immediate need that this sin "triggered" was a need for justification and from that moment on God's plan to atone and justify man from his sin was put into place. (Actually the word says that even before the foundation of the world, this plan was in place, but that's just way to vast a truth for me to even attempt to understand!) Suffice it to say, Jesus Christ was to provide us with our ultimate justification and we rest in that when we trust Him and His finished work for us at the Cross.
So why then are we still constantly trying to justify ourselves, not only in our striving to measure up with God, but more so in our day to day little and big failings; our commissions and omissions of sin; our acts and our failures to act? Here is what I mean....
When I fail and or sin, I find myself justifying my failure or sin, and that justification can go so far as to totally deceive me. Let's say I know to do something and I don't do it ( sin by omission)...the moment I make the choice not to do it, I start giving myself good reasons as to why; it's inevitable. If I don't give myself good reasons as to why I did not do what I knew to do, the feelings of guilt or shame would override me; I don't like feeling guilt or shame, so I alleviate those feelings by giving myself the excuse...the justification...and the deception that sets in, works well to help me actually believe it!
If we sin against another typical justification works like this...... first, we remind ourselves of all the times that person sinned against us; we then put an interpretation about why they sinned against us and it usually has to do with what a bad person they are, ie: he's a jerk, she's a beeeotch; he's lazy, good for nothing and inconsiderate; she's manipulative, cold and lacks understanding; he's uncaring and indifferent; she's critical and difficult to please. On and on it goes. When we are in "justification required to make myself feel better" mode, we inevitably knock the other person down, while we build ourselves up. They're bad; I'm good; they are the dastardly villian while I'm the innocent victim; they have an entrenched sin problem while I only have issues. We buy into these beliefs so much because thinking like this allows us to then justify ourselves, and feel better about our behavior. The trouble is, I wonder...if we only ever justify ourselves and never actually own our behavior so we can repent of our sins and failings, can we deceive ourselves so badly that we risk it all? How can we trust in our Lord's atonement and rest in the justification He provides us, if we don't believe we need it?
I wonder at the ramifications of the self deception we enter into when we believe our own justifications?
In Matthew 25 Jesus talks about His coming again and particularly, where He separates the sheep from the goats. When pondering our tendency to justify our positions and sins, I read this last week and it got me thinking...
Then the King will say to those on His right hand, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer Him saying, "Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and cloth You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison and come to You?
....then Jesus said to those on His left hand, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devel and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me. Then they also will answer Him, saying "Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?"
I find it interesting that the sheep had no idea of the impact they were making by simply going about doing what they knew in their hearts to do. They had to ask, "when did we do these things"? And this makes me think that they were humble in their doing, and if they failed in that doing, their humility enabled them to own the failing with no excuses - no justification required because they trusted in His provision for it - and so they could simply repent and carry on.
I find it equally interesting that the goats had no idea that they had no impact. Their question was not "when did we do these things" - no, their question was "when didn't we do them?" Were they so deceived by their justifications that they believed themselves far better than they were? Had they borne false witness of their own false virtue, truly believing that they were "good" because of their own justifications?
When we play the justification game, we risk the kind of self deception that renders us harmful in our relationships; we are first harming ourselves, then those we love, and far worse than any of that, we are harming our relationship with our Savior. He has provided all the justification we will ever need, so your own is not required.
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