From "My Fault" to "Faultless"

I've been staying busy working these days and this week has been a blur.  Someone said that "Time flies when you're having fun."  I've been having fun, but I've also been very busy.  I've Monday through Thursday I worked at a the New Willow Elementary school and today I worked at a new housing development at UCSD.  I will be working with a crew on Saturday as well, trying to catch up with the plumbers and pipe fitters.  We are insulating the heating hot water supply and return, condensate, and domestic hot water.  Hopefully us insulators will have the job to ourselves.

Wednesday night during the communion service I was absolutely blessed by a vivid night of fellowship with my Savior and brothers and sisters in Christ.  I was struck with the horror of the cross:  not only is crucifixion brutal in itself, but to consider that the King of Kings hung upon a cross adorned with wounds for which I am personally responsible, crowned with thorns which exist because of the curse brought upon the world through sin.  It was a shock to me, though I have attended many services in the past.

Imagine the shock of seeing smoke rising up from the side of the road far in the distance.  As you draw closer, it seems that you recognize the car - it is your mother's car!  Think of the agony of heart as horrible thoughts race through your head:  is she ok?  Has she been burned alive?  What on earth happened?  Is that really her car?  How surreal would it be to see your mother's lifeless body being loaded onto a stretcher, covered with a sheet, and rolled by the paramedics into the ambulance.  For those of us who have experienced the loss of a loved one, this scenario may be too close for comfort.  In the case of Christ, however, you can never touch too deep a nerve.  Many people walked by the crucifixion scene and were shocked to see who was on the cross.  Among the theives hung Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, who lay down His life for the sins of the world.  If you loved Him, you would cover your mouth in horror to see His physical condition.

Now imagine you had known about a problem with your mother's car and neglected to do anything about it.  You knew that there was a minor risk driving the car without the repair being made - it was only a tiny gas leak - but fixing mom's car was very low on your priority list.  As a direct repercussion of your actions, she is gone forever from the earth.  How would you feel?  What a weight of guilt!  What inconsolable sorrow would you carry!  You would invite the blame upon yourself because the tragic inferno could have been averted by replacing a $5 hose.  When you consider Christ dying on the cross, do you see Him with the same personal responsibility?  He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.  He suffered for me and you.  Yet we easily trample His blood under our feet through our coarse words, selfish attitudes, and ungodly conduct.  We must take ownership of our sin so we might receive Christ's forgiveness. 

We cannot change the past.  A devotional I'm reading written by a farmer talks about the problem with looking back while plowing.  If you want to plow a straight furrow, you must keep your eyes facing ahead, fixed on a stationary object.  If you turn around to see how the furrow looks you will begin to drift off course and each successive furrow will become more and more crooked.  If we're always looking back to how we lost our temper yesterday or cursed when we broke something, or how when you were in college you slept around, we will never progress.  As a born again child of God you are free from bondage to the guilt of your past.  When we keep our crucified and risen LORD as our focal point, we will walk that straight, narrow path of righteousness.

Our guilt has been turned into thanksgiving, our sorrow into joy through the sacrifice of Jesus.  When we see Christ on the cross we should say through tears, "It is my fault!  It is my fault!"  It is through His blood and repentance that we are made faultless.  Wonder of wonders!  We must confess our wrongs before we can be made right.  There is no salvation in any other but in Jesus Christ.  The one who will present me faultless can keep me from future stumbles.  Jude 1:24-25 says, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, [25] to God our Savior, who alone is wise be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever.  Amen."