© 2013 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

God made cockroaches. Most of us despise them. Although present, even in kings’ palaces, they are sought out and destroyed. They’re filthy bugs that we don’t want in our homes!

Suppose, however, that a king decided to adopt a few roaches as pets. Is he obligated to do so? No! Does the cockroach deserve such treatment? No! If a king granted mercy to cockroaches, he’d be granting them unusual and undeserved favor.

God also made man. Man, also, is filthy. He’s more loathsome than cockroaches in God’s sight. Not only are his physical habits often filthy, his spiritual qualities are defiled. Even his best behaviors and attitudes are considered dirty by God. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6). To make matters worse, we were originally created lofty. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27). Through sin, however, Adam and Eve defiled that image, and we’ve each continued that defilement to this very day. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). It was like placing graffiti on the image of God Himself. This is far more heinous than anything a cockroach has ever done!

Man deserves less forgiveness or mercy from God than a cockroach does from a king. Yet the Bible tells us that God the Son, Jesus Christ, came to die for sinners. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). God says, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). Now that’s far more incredible than a king adopting pet cockroaches!

Have you come to Christ in repentance and received Him as your Lord and Savior?

 

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